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Pearls from the East : 



STORIES AND INCIDENTS FROM 
BIBLE HISTORY. 

BY 

Rev. Richard Newton, D.D. 








1 ' The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls. ' ' 




PHILADELPHIA : 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

1122 Chestnut Street; 
73 Randolph ST., Chicago} to Bible House, New York. 



[Copyright, i88t.] 
Thb American Sunday-School Union. 



1$ 



PREFACE. 



WHAT a precious thing a pearl is! How round, how smooth, how bright, 
how beautiful it looks ! 

Our pearls come chiefly from the eastern part of the world. There they are 
found in shell-fish, which are gathered from the bottom of the sea. The divers 
go down, often with great danger, to collect and bring up the shell-fish which 
contain the pearls. And thus it is that we get our pearls. 

When Jesus, our blessed Saviour, was on earth, he compared himself to a 
pearl, the " pearl of great price " (Matt. xiii. 46). And every part of Bible 
truth, that tells of Jesus, may well be considered as a spiritual pearl. The 
portions of Scripture contained in this book refer to " his great salvation." And 
so we may well speak of it as containing " Pearls From the East." And if 
our young friends who read this book shall learn from it anything about Jesus, 
and shall be helped in trying to love and serve him, this will show that the 
name given to it is a good one. 

May God bless all who read this book, and help them to find Jesus, " the 
pearl of great price ! " 

Richard Newton. 

Philadelphia, October, 1881. 

(3) 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Illustration 8 

The Eastern Maid 9 

Illustration 11 

The Prince in Midian 12 

Poem : Hushed was the evening hymn 14 

Illustration 15 

The Destroying Angel 16 

Illustration . . 18 

Israel's First Battle . 19 

Illustration 21 

The Smitten Rock - 22 

Illustration 24 

The Wonderful Cure 25 

Poem: O Lord, turn not Thy face from tts.. . 27 

Illustration 28 

Memorial Stones 29 

Poem : Father, I /mow that all my life 31 

Illustration . 32 

The Secret Spoii ^3 

Illustration 35 

The Shepherd Lad 36 

Poem : O holy Saviour, Friend unseen 38 

Illustration 39 

Returning Good for Evil 40 

Illustration 42 

God's Covenant with David 43 

Illustration 45 

What to Know, Do and Love 46 

Poem : A charge to keep I have 48 

Illustration 49 

Wisdom, Wealth and Blessing 50 

Poem : Jesus shall reign where'er the sun .... 52 

Illustration 53 

The Father's Care 54 

Poem : Sometimes a light surprises 56 

Illustration 57 



PAGE 

Elijah and the False Prophets 58 

Poem : Not in anything we do 60 

Illustration 61 

The Wonderful Jar of Oil. . 62 

Illustration 64 

Greed and its Gains 65 

Poem : Object of my first desire 66 

Illustration 67 

The Unseen Army 68 

Poem : In JViee I trust, on Thee I rest 70 

Illustration 71 

The Death of Elisha 72 

Poem : Brief life is here our portion 73 

Illustration 74 

Repairing the House of God 75 

Illustration 77 

The Scriptures Found and Searched 78 

Poem : The Spirit breathes upon the word . ... 79 

Illustration 80 

The Builders Interrupted 81 

Illustration S3 

The Reading of the Law 84 

Illustration 86 

The Star out of Jacob 87 

Illustration 89 

The Gentle Call : 90 

Illustration 92 

The Leper Healed 93 

Illustration 95 

Power over Death 96 

Poem : Our beloved have departed 98 

Illustration 99 

The Feast in the Wilderness 100 

Poem : O Bread of Life from heaven 102 

Illustration 103 

The Transfiguration 104 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Illustration 106 

The Poor Child Blessed 107 

Poem : Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old. ... 109 

Illustration no 

The Vine and its Branches in 

I LLUSTRATION 1 1 3 

The Traitor 114 

Poem : O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy 

head 1 16 

Illustration 117 

The Denial 118 

Poem: Weary of wandering from my God. . . 120 

Illustration 121 

The King of Kings 122 

Illustration 124 

Jesus and Mary 125 

Illustration 127 

After the Resurrection 128 

I LLUSTRATION 1 30 

A Wonderful Sermon 131 

Illustration 133 

Christian Fellowship 134 

Illustration 136 

The Few Before the Many 137 

Illustration 139 



PAGE 

The First Martyr 140 

Illustration 142 

Dorcas Restored to Life 143 

Poem: Hark! a voice! it cries from heaven. 145 

Illustration 146 

The Prisoner set Free 147 

Illustration 150 

The Great Preacher 151 

Poem : God is my strong salvation 153 

Illustration , . . 154 

Paul at Jerusalem 155 

Illustration 157 

Paul Before Agrippa 158 

Illustration 161 

Paui in Rome.. 162 

Poem : How beauteous are their feet 164 

Illustration 165 

The Happy Home 166 

Poem : Children of the Heavenly ICing 168 

Illustration 1 69 

Right Living 1 70 

Poem : With love the Saviour 's heart over- 
flowed 172 

Illustration 173 

The Good Samaritan 174 



PEARLS FROM THE EAST. 



THE EASTERN MAID. 



THERE is a great difference between 
the way in which people live in 
Eastern countries, and in our own 
country. It is to be seen in many 
things, but perhaps in nothing greater 
than the way in which the supply of 
water is obtained. With us, in our 
cities, we have a hydrant in our yard, 
and water running all through the 
house. We can draw water as we 
want it in most of the rooms. And 
even in country places we generally 
find a well near the door, and often a 
pump in the kitchen, from which water 
can be had without any trouble. 

But in Eastern countries it is very 
different. There we often find only one 
well for the supply of a whole village. 
This well is at some distance from the 
houses. And all the water that is 
needed for a family must be carried 
from it, which is generally done by the 
women. You remember that when our 
blessed Lord was sitting by Jacob's 
well, how " there came a woman of 
Samaria to draw water." 

The picture on the preceding page 



represents an Eastern woman at the well 
with her water-pitcher. It may well 
remind us of Rebekah, whose interest- 
ing story we have in the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Genesis, though we cannot 
regard it as representing her, because 
of the little cross hanging round her 
neck ; and Rebekah certainly never 
wore such an ornament. But still, as 
we look at the picture, we may think of 
the story of Rebekah. 

She was the grand-daughter o r Xahor, 
who was the brother of the patriarch 
Abraham. Her grand-father, Nahor, 
was very rich. He was one of the 
chief men of the land — a prince among 
his people. And yet, although her 
family were so very well off, she was 
not ashamed to carry water from the 
well for their use. It was part of her 
daily duty to take a pitcher to the well, 
fill it with water there, and carry it 
home on her head. This she did a 
number of times each day. And it was 
in going to the well one day to fill her 
pitcher with water, that the most impor- 
tant event of her life happened, and she 

(9) 



IO 



THE EASTERN MAID. 



found a husband. How this occurred 
we shall see hereafter. 

Here we have a beautiful illustration 
of the way in which God guides his 
people. Rebekah was living with her 
father, Bethuel; and her grand-father, 
Nahor, in the land oi Chaldea. Abra- 
ham, her great-uncle, had gone out 
from that country at the command of 
God, and was living in the land of 
Canaan. He had a son, Isaac, who 
was old enough to be married. But he 
was not willing that he should marry 
one of the daughters of the Canaanites, 
because they were all heathen people. 
So Abraham sent one of his faithful 
servants on a visit to his brother Nahor, 
in Chaldea, to see if he could get one 
of the daughters or grand-daughters of 
that family to be the wife of his son. 

It was a long journey which this ser- 
vant had to take. It occupied him a 
long time. One evening he halted, with 
his camels and their attendants, by the 
side of a well. He felt that he had 
important business on hand. He was 
anxious about two things : one was to 
find out where Nahor, the brother of 
his master Abraham, lived; the other 
was to get the right person to be the 
wife of Isaac, his master's son. So he 
prayed that God would guide him in 
this business. He asked that when the 
women came to draw water, and he 
should request one of them to give him a 
drink, and to draw water for his camels 



to drink, that she who did this should 
be the one whom he intended to be the 
wife of Isaac. And God heard and 
answered that prayer. 

The first young woman that Abra- 
ham's servant spoke to, kindly gave 
him a drink, and then drew water for 
his camels to drink. And when he 
came to have some further conversation 
with her, he found that she belonged to 
the family of Nahor. She invited him 
to stay at their house, and she proved 
to be the very Rebekah whom God 
had chosen to be the wife of Isaac. 

What a beautiful illustration we have 
here of such promises as these: "The 
Lord shall guide thee continually " 
(Isa. lviii. u); "In all thy ways ac- 
knowledge him, and he shall direct thy 
paths " (Prov. iii. 6). 

Now see how God honors and blesses 
his people. It was a great honor and 
blessing to Rebekah when God chose 
her to be the wife of Isaac. That 
brought her to live in a family in which 
God was truly known and worshipped. 
It brought her into close connection 
with Christ, by becoming one of his 
ancestors. And the blessing of the 
world was in him. And to be con- 
nected with him is the greatest blessing 
and highest honor that any one can 
ever receive. 

All this came to Rebekah when she 
was quietly attending to her daily 
duties. 



THE PRINCE IN MIDIAN. 



THE previous picture illustrates a 
very interesting subject in the 
history of God's people — the 
Jews — the call of their deliverer, who 
was Moses. 

Let us tell you something about his 
life, which was divided into three parts, 
all of the same length, each being forty 
years long. The first portion of it was 
spent in Egypt. He was called "the 
son of Pharaoh's daughter." He lived 
in a palace then. Egypt was the rich- 
est kingdom in the world at that time. 
At the court of Pharaoh, he must have 
been surrounded with all the honors 
and pleasures that riches and power 
could give. There he had a first-rate 
education. Stephen, the first martyr, 
tells us that he " was learned in all the 
v/isdom of the Egyptians." Acts vii. 
22. He says also that " he was mighty j 
in words and deeds." Josephus, the 
Jewish historian, tells us that he was 
made a general, and led an Egyptian 
army to battle, and gained a great vic- 
tory. But when he had gained all 
the learning Egypt could give, there 
was something else for him to learn, 
before he would be prepared for the 
important work before him as the leader 
and law-giver of his people. It was 
necessary for him to know more about 

(12) 



himself and more about his God. 
Egypt was not the best school in which 
to gain this knowledge. It was neces- 
sary for him to be left alone, and to 
have a quiet time in which to study his 
own heart, and to become better ac- 
quainted with the character of God. 
For this purpose God sent him to 
school in the wilderness. He spent 
forty years in this school. A shep- 
herd's life was a very quiet one. And 
as he fed his flocks in the wilderness, 
Moses learned some lessons that were 
more useful to him than any he had 
learned in Egypt. Here he spent the 
second great period of his life. And 
here he learned the lesson of patience, 
and meekness, and forbearance, and 
trust in God, which were so necessary 
for him in the great and important 
work that he had afterwards to do. 
And when he had learned these lessons 
well, God came to him to tell him that 
he was to change his shepherd's life for 
another. That was the third division 
of his life. This, also, was forty years 
long. And this brings us to the won- 
derful sight he saw. 

" The angel of the Lord appeared 
unto him in a flame of fire out of the 
midst of a bush," Ex. iii. 2. The picture 
attempts to represent the angel's form 



THE PRINCE IN MIDIAN. 



13 



in the bush. Moses saw the bush 
burning. The flames were wrapping 
themselves round every branch and 
leaf, and yet the branches did not 
crackle, and the leaves did not shrivel 
up. How strange and wonderful this 
was ! We are not surprised that Moses 
should say, " I will now turn aside, and 
see this great sight, why the bush is 
not burnt," v. 3. If you or I should 
hold the branch of a tree or bush in a 
blazing fire, it would be burnt up in a 
minute. If the fire should play around 
the leaves without consuming them, it 
would be a miracle. And we should 
be as much surprised as Moses was. 
This wonderful sight was shown to 
Moses to make him feel the great power 
of God, and to strengthen his trust in 
him. Moses was going to be called to 
do a very great work. He could only 
do that work by having great confidence 
in God ; and this wonderful sight was 
intended to increase this confidence. 

And then it was intended also to 
show him how easily God could take 
care of his countrymen, the children 
of Israel, although they were so much 
afflicted. Trouble or affliction is often 
compared to a fire. It wastes, or con- 
sumes people just as fire consumes a 
bush. And this wonderful sight of the 
bush burning, and not being consumed, 
was intended to show Moses that God 
would preserve the Israelites in the 
midst of all their troubles, and would 
keep them from being destroyed by 



them. But listen to the wonderful 
words that Moses heard. 

He was first told to put off his shoes 
or sandals from his feet, because the 
ground on which he stood was holy 
ground, v. 5. It was God's presence 
which made that ground holy. And 
this will make any place holy where 
God dwells. It is this which makes 
our churches holy. A church is God's 
house. God dwells there. We should 
remember this when we are in church. 
God is there as truly as he was in the 
bush at Sinai ; and though we cannot 
see him with our bodily eyes, as Moses 
did, yet he sees us, and he expects us 
to reverence his sanctuary. We should 
always try to behave there just as we 
would do if we could see God, as 
Moses saw him in the bush. 

Then God told Moses who he was. 
He said, v. 6, " I am . . . the God of Abra- 
ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he 
was afraid to look upon God." This 
was very natural. We would feel just 
the same if God would appear to us in 
such a wonderful way, and speak such 
solemn words to us. 

And then in the 7th and 8th verses, 
God tells Moses that he had seen the 
afflictions of his people Israel, in Egypt, 
and that now he was going to deliver 
them, and to lead them up into the 
good land which he had promised to 
their fathers. 

This must have made Moses very 



14 



THE PRINCE IN MIDIAN. 



glad. He had tried once to deliver the 
Israelites himself, forty years before ; 
but he failed then, because he was do- 
ing it in his own strength, and before 
God's time had come. He had been 
waiting all these years, and now the 
proper time had come. And hence the 
call of Moses. 

" Come now therefore, and I will 
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou 
mayst bring forth my people, the chil- 
dren of Israel, out of Egypt." 

This was a very distinct call. Moses 
saw God with his own eyes, and heard 
him with his own ears. He could not 
be mistaken about it. We should have 
thought that he would have been ready 
to go at once, and do what God told 
him to do. But, to our surprise, this 
was not so. He tried to excuse him- 
self on various grounds. But God re- 
moved all his objections, and then, at 
last, he obeyed the call, and brought 
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt, 
with the most surprising wonders and 
miracles that ever were performed. 

Now, we see from this lesson, that 
when God has a work for any of his 
people to do, he first prepares them for 
it. Then he calls them to it. And 
then he gives them all the help and 
strength they need in doing it. God 
has something for each of us to do. 
Let us prepare for it by trying to know 
and love him. Let us listen when he 
calls us. It will come not in con- 
nection with a wonderful sight, like 



that which Moses or Paul saw ; not 
by an angel speaking to us ; but it will 
be by the " still, small voice " of the 
Holy Spirit, whispering to our hearts. 
It will be a call first to repent of our 
sins, and to give ourselves to the ser- 
vice of Jesus. And then, when we say 
with Paul, " Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do ? " God will show us how we 
may serve and glorify him. O may 
we have it in our hearts to say, " Speak, 
Lord, for thy servant heareth." 

Hushed was the evening hymn, 

The temple courts were dark, 
The lamp was burning dim 

Before the sacred ark, 
When suddenly a voice divine 
Rang through the silence of the shrine. 

The old man, meek and mild, 

The priest of Israel, slept; 
His watch the temple child, 

The little Levite, kept ; 
And what from Eli's sense was sealed, 
The Lord to Hannah's son revealed. 

O give me Samuel's ear, 

The open ear, O Lord, 
Alive and quick to hear 

Each whisper of Thy word, 
Like him to answer at Thy call, 
And to obey Thee first of all. 
O give me Samuel's heart, 
lowly heart, that waits 
Where in Thy house Thou art, 

Or watches at Thy gates, — 
By day and night, a heart that still 
Moves at the breathing of Thy will. 

O give me Samuel's mind, 

A sweet unmurmuring faith, 
Obedient and resigned 

To Thee in life and death, 
That I may read with childlike eyes 
Truths that are hidden from the wise. 



THE DESTROYING ANGEL. 



THE picture on the preceding page 
is one of the most surprising 
things that ever took place. It 
occurred in Egypt, more than thirty- 
three hundred years ago. It is called 
" Jehovah's Passover," or, The Lord's 
Passover. We wish you to understand 
why it was so called. 

Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, was 
holding the children of Israel as his 
slaves. He put heavy burdens upon 
them, and treated them with great cru- 
elty. God had sent Moses to Pharaoh, 
to tell him to set the Israelites at liberty, 
and let them go out of Egypt. Pha- 
raoh refused to do this. So God sent 
a number of dreadful plagues upon 
the Egyptians, which brought them 
into great trouble and distress. But 
still Pharaoh refused to heed God's 
judgments, and let the children of Is- 
rael go. Then God said he would send 
one more plague on Pharaoh and his 
people, which would make them willing 
enough to let the Israelites go. 

God would send his angel at the sol- 
emn hour of midnight, who should 
pass over all the land of Egypt, and 
kill at once the oldest child in every 
family, and the oldest among the young 
of all the cattle. This was the danger 
then threatened. It was a dreadful 
(16) 



thing to think of. But this fearful 
evil was not to come upon the Israel- 
ites, because of the way of escape pro- 
vided for them. 

They were to take a lamb for every 
family. They were to kill it in the 
evening, and roast and eat it. This 
was called " The Feast of the Pass- 
over." We read about this in Ex. 
xii. 3-1 1. Then they were to take 
the blood of this lamb, and dip a 
bunch of hyssop in it, and strike the 
blood on the two side posts, and the 
upper door post of the houses in which 
the Israelites lived. If you look at the 
doors of the houses in the picture, you 
will see black marks in these places, 
which are intended to show where the 
blood was put on. And God said that 
this blood upon their doorposts should 
save the Israelites ; for when the angel 
saw the blood on their houses, he would 
pass over them, and not destroy the 
first-born of those who lived in these 
houses. This was the way of escape 
that God provided for the Israelites. 
But you will ask how this threatened 
danger came. 

The 29th verse tells how this hap- 
pened. The still, solemn hour of mid- 
night had come. The Egyptians were 
generally fast asleep when God sent 



THE DESTROYING ANGEL. 



17 



his angel forth to slay all their first- 
born. Our picture represents this an- 
gel in the act of passing over Egypt. 
Nobody saw him as he went out on his 
dreadful errand ; for angels are invisi- 
ble to us. Our eyes cannot see them 
when they come or when they go. If 
they could be seen at all, no doubt any 
person who had been on the watch in 
Egypt at that midnight hour would 
have seen some such sight as our pic- 
ture represents. I do not say that the 
angel had a fiery sword in his hand, as 
he is seen to have in the picture. And 
yet, when we think of an angel as go- 
ing forth to kill and to destroy, we 
often speak as if he must have such a 
sword in his hand. 

That angel passed over the land in 
silence. But he did the dreadful work 
assigned him. And he did it effectu- 
ally. As if by one stroke all the first- 
born in the land of Egypt, both of men 
and animals, were killed. No wonder 
that we read, " there was a great cry in 
Egypt ; for there was not a house where 
there zvas not one dead." How loud 
the wail must have been which rang 
through Egypt then ! The people per- 
haps feared that they were all going to 
die, and this must have added greatly 
to the alarm and dread which filled their 
minds, and made that night so terrible 
that they would never forget it. 

The death of the first-born took 
place in every house which was not 



sprinkled with the blood of the slain 
lamb. But every house which had the 
blood upon it had the most perfect pro- 
tection. Not one person died in any of 
the blood-sprinkled houses. So this 
passover lamb reminds us of Jesus, and 
hence Paul says, " Christ our passover is 
sacrificed for us!' 1 Cor. v. 7. The 
Jews found two great blessings in their 
passover lamb. They were protected 
by the blood of the lamb, and at the 
same time they were fed by its flesh. 
In Jesus we have both these blessings. 
His blood cleanses us from all sin, and 
saves us from the wrath of God. When 
we trust in Jesus we are safe. "There 
is no condemnation for us then." No 
sword can hurt us. 

And then our souls are to feed and 
feast on Jesus, just as the Israelites fed 
and feasted on the lamb of the passover. 
Jesus himself said, " Whoso eateth my 
flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eter- 
nal life ; ... for my flesh is meat in- 
deed, and my blood is drink indeed." 
John vi. 54, 55. Of course his flesh 
and blood mean the truths of the gos- 
pel, and by eating and drinking these, 
he means believing them. And so, 
when we learn to believe in Jesus, we 
find both protection and food for our 
souls in him. If we refuse to believe 
in Jesus we are like the Egyptians, who 
had no blood on their houses, and are 
exposed to the danger of being de- 
stroyed by our sins. 



ISRAEL'S FIRST BATTLE. 



HERE is a picture of an interesting 
event that happened to the chil- 
dren of Israel, not long after 
they had begun their journey through 
the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan. 
When they began their long journey 
through the desert, they expected to 
meet with hot suns, burning sands, and 
barren wastes. These they were prepared 
for. But they did not expect to meet with 
armed men, coming out to fight with 
them. And this they were not prepared 
for. Yet this was what they had to meet. 
In Ex. xvii. 8 we read, " Then came 
Amalek and fought with Israel." This 
was a nation called the Amalekites, 
who were the descendants of Amalek, 
who was the grandson of Esau, the 
brother of Jacob, from whom the 
Israelites were descended. So we see 
that the Amalekites were relations of 
the Israelites, being a sort of second 
cousins. On this account they ought 
to have been kind to the Israelites. 
They should have been ready rather to 
help them, than to hinder them in their 
journey. But the Amalekites had al- 
ways felt jealous of the Israelites, on 
account of the favor which God had 
been pleased to show to them. And 
this was the reason why they came out 
against them. They knew that the 



Israelites were on their way to the good 
land which God had promised them. 
They were angry to think of their 
cousins having a country that was so 
much better than theirs. And so they 
came to fight against them, and try to 
prevent them from getting to that good 
land. 

Thus the Israelites found an army in 
their way. They were not used to 
fighting. They were very unwilling 
to do it. But there was no helping it. 
So they got ready for their first battle. 
Moses directed Joshua what to do. 
This is the first time that Joshua's 
name is mentioned, though we hear 
much about him afterwards. He is told 
to take twelve thousand men, one thou- 
sand to represent each tribe, and go and 
fight against Amalek. Joshua did so. 
And while the fight was going on, on the 
plains below, Moses was on the top of 
one of the neighboring hills Watching 
how the battle went. But it was not 
idle curiosity which led him up there. 
No : he went there to pray for Israel's 
success. He stood there with the rod 
by which he had wrought so many 
wonders. With his hands raised up to- 
wards heaven, he prayed that God 
would bless the Israelites. And while 
he kept on praying, the Israelites pre- 

(i9) 



20 



ISRAEL'S FIRST BATTLE. 



vailed, but when he stopped praying 
the Amalekites prevailed. 

But Moses was now getting to be 
an old man. He was between eighty 
and ninety years of age. He found it 
tiresome to stand up with his hands 
stretched out. So his brother Aaron and 
his friend Hur, who were with him, took 
a great stone, and sat him on it. Then 
they stood, one on each side, and held 
up his hands, as we see in the picture. 
Thus Moses continued in prayer all 
day. And so, while Joshua and the 
soldiers were fighting, Moses and his 
friends were praying, and thus the vic- 
tory was gained. 

Two results followed ; one of these 
was the result to Amalek, whch is stated 
in v. 14, viz.: the destruction of the 
people. This is what is meant when 
God says he would "put out the remem- 
brance of Amalek from under heaven!' 
They were to be utterly destroyed. 
This was not done at once. The destruc- 
tion here threatened was brought upon 
the Amalekites partly by King Saul, as 
we read in 1 Samuel xv. 7, 8. This was 
about four hundred years after the 
battle here recorded. David finished 
the work of their destruction some 
years later. The other result of this 
battle referred to the Israelites themselves. 
In v. 15, we read that " Moses built an 
altar, and called the name of it Jehovah- 
nissi." This means " the Lord my ban- 



ner." " When Moses built this altar, and 
called the Lord by this name, he meant 
to teach the Israelites that the God of 
heaven was their banner, and that as he 
had given them victory over the Ama- 
lekites, so he would lead them on to 
victory over all their enemies. The 
result of the battle to the Israelites was 
that they learned a new lesson about 
the character of God. And lessons of 
this kind are the best lessons we can 
ever learn. 

There is one thing that we should 
always remember when we think about 
the defeat of Amalek. It shows us that 
we must do all we can to help ourselves 
if we want God to help us. 

God could easily have sent an angel 
to destroy the Amalekites. Or he 
might have made use of a pestilence, 
or an earthquake for this purpose. But 
he chose to make use of the army of 
Israel to do it. But, while the soldiers 
were fighting, it was necessary for Moses 
to be praying. The prayer of Moses 
would not have gained the victory un- 
less the soldiers had gone to fight. 
And the fighting of the soldiers would 
have done no good unless Moses had 
prayed. God had told them to fight as 
well as pray. Doing one of these things 
would never have gained them this 
victory. And so it is still. We must 
try to help ourselves, as well as ask 
God to help us. 



THE SMITTEN ROCK. 



THE Israelites had now been wan- 
dering up and down in the wil- 
derness about thirty-eight years 
since leaving Egypt. They were now 
very near the borders of the promised 
land. They had been there before, and 
if they had only minded what God said 
to them, they might have gone into that 
good land then. But as they disobeyed 
him, he sent them back into the wil- 
derness to wander about for forty 
years. Those long years were nearly 
over, and they were beginning to think 
of getting into Canaan. But where 
they now were, there were no wells. 
They were short of water, and to be in 
a hot, sandy desert without water was 
dreadful. So the people were distressed, 
and in their distress they forgot to ask 
God to give them what they needed. 
He was giving them, by a miracle, 
bread to eat every day, and they should 
have known that he could give them 
water just as easily as he gave them 
bread, and as he had done once before, 
as we read in Exod. xvii. 3-6. 

But most of the people who had seen 
that miracle had since died. And so, 
instead of going to God, they began to 
murmur and complain, and wish that 
they were dead. This made Moses and 
Aaron feel very badly. They went to 



God in prayer, and he told them what 
to do; and it was in doing this that they 
committed the sin spoken of in our 
story. Let us see what it was. 

In Num. xx. 8, we read that God 
told Moses to take in his hand the rod 
— the wonderful rod which had done 
such great things — and gather the 
people around him, and then speak to 
the rock, and the water would gush out, 
enough for all the people. Accordingly 
Moses took the rod and called the 
people to him. Thus far he did right. 
But then, instead of speaking to the 
rock, as God told him, Moses smote it 
with the rod. Instead of speaking to 
the rock, which God had told him, he 
spoke to the people, which God had not 
told him to do. And he spoke to them 
in anger, and when we do anything in 
anger we are pretty sure to do it wrong. 
He said, "Hear now, ye rebels; must 
we fetch you water out of this rock?" 
v. 10. In this sin of Moses we see dis- 
obedience to God, anger, (David says, 
" He spake unadvisedly with his lips." 
Ps. cvi. 33), and unbelief. In v. 12, God 
declares it was want of faith in him 
which led Moses so to act, and because 
he had done this, he and Aaron should 
die in the wilderness, and should not go 
over Jordan with the Israelites. This 



THE SMITTEN ROCK. 



23 



was about the heaviest trial that Moses 
could have. There was nothing in this 
world that he had desired so much. He 
had been thinking of it all his life. The 
more he thought of it, the more he 
wanted to see it. And he had always 
expected that he should see it. What 
a bitter disappointment to him i In 
Deut. iii. 25-27, we see how earnestly 
he prayed that God would let him go 
over Jordan. But God would not hear 
him. He told him to stop praying 
about it, for he would not let him go. He 
said he might go up to the top of Pis- 
gah and see the land; but he should 
not go over Jordan. Such was the pun- 
ishment of Moses. 

In all this we learn hozc .danger- 
ous disobedience is ! This is the only 
time in all the years while Moses 
was in the wilderness when he failed 
to obey God. The apostle Paul says 
of him, that "he was faithful in all his 
house." Heb. iii. 2. He was dis- 
obedient only once ; yet that one act 
kept him out of the promised land. 
This is a solemn thought. 

Another thing we learn is How dif- 
ferently God looks at sin from what we 
do! It does not seem to us that the 
sin of Moses was a very great one. A 
good deal might be said to excuse him. 
The people were very unreasonable and 
very provoking. They made Moses 
angry. He appears to have been afraid 



that God would be displeased with 
them, and perhaps turn them back into 
the wilderness again. God knew all this 
better than we do. And yet he saw 
great sin in the conduct of Moses. Poor 
Moses ! he fell into sin, and brought 
upon himself the very evil which he 
was afraid the Israelites were in dancer 
of bringing on themselves ! We must 
judge of our sins, not as they appear 
to us, but to God. 

And then we learn thai the best men 
are not perfect in this world. Moses was 
one of the very best and holiest of men. 
Twice he spent forty days at a time 
with God on the mount. When he 
came down his face shone so brightly 
that the people could not bear to look 
at him, and he was obliged to vail his 
face. Exod. xxxiv. 29-33. It is said, 
"There arose not a prophet since in 
Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord 
knew face to face." Deut. xxxiv. 10. 
And yet he was not perfect. He was 
remarkable for his gentleness. We say, 
"as meek as Moses," because he was 
said to be the meekest man in the 
world. And yet, on this occasion, his 
meekness failed him and he was angry. 
Jesus was the only perfect man who 
ever lived in our world. His example 
is the only one we can follow safely in 
all things, " without copying a blot." Let 
us pray that we may be made more like 
Jesus. 




I 



THE WONDERFUL CURE. 



w 



THAT an interesting scene we 
have in the picture ! 

The Israelites were now near 
to the land which God had promised. 
They had come to the borders of Edom, 
which lay directly south of Palestine. 
The Edomites, who lived there, were 
the children of Esau, the brother of 
Jacob, and so they were a sort of 
cousins of the Israelites. We read in 
Num. xx. 14-21, that the Israelites 
asked leave of the Edomites to travel 
through their country. But they would 
not let them do it. This was very 
unkind. It put the Israelites to a great 
deal of inconvenience. Instead of 
marching right on to the land they 
were going to, they had to turn back, 
and take a long journey down towards 
the Red Sea. It was a barren, burning 
desert over which they had to journey. 
They were tired and disappointed. They 
sinned by murmuring against Moses and 
against God. To punish them for this 
God sent serpents which were called 
" fiery serpents," either because they 
had a fiery look, or because the poison 
of their bites produced a fiery heat — a 
great inflammation. When they were 
suffering and dying from the bites, God 
told Moses to make a serpent of brass, 
and put it on a pole, and tell the people 



to look at it, and that all who looked 
should be healed and live. Moses did 
so, and thus the people were healed. 

There are two things we want you to 
notice, which apply to ourselves as well 
as to the Jews. Look at the evil from 
which they suffered, and the remedy to 
remove it. 

The evil ivas a common one. We are 
not told that every person among the 
Israelites was bitten by these serpents. 
But every one was liable to be bitten. 
They were in great numbers. They 
swarmed everywhere. In our picture 
we see them crawling and twining 
themselves around the people. 

And this truly represents sin, the evil 
that troubles us. It is a common evil. 
We are not only all liable to it, but we 
are all sitffering from it. We are all 
born in sin. Its dreadful power is upon 
us all. 

Again, it was a painful evil from 
which the Israelites were suffering. The 
bite of the serpents was followed by 
swelling and great heat. The blood ran 
through the veins like liquid fire, so that 
the fever and pain were dreadful. 

And so it is with sin. It leads to 
sighs and tears and pains and sorrows. 
All the suffering in the world comes 
from it. 

(25) 



26 



THE WONDERFUL CURE. 



And then it was an incurable evil 
which the Israelites were suffering. The 
doctors could do nothing with it. In 
Num. xxi. 6, we read: " Much people of 
Israel died." And all who were bitten 
were sure to die, sooner or later. 

And it is just so with sin, the serpent 
that has bitten our souls. It is an incur- 
able evil. God has said, " The soul that 
sinneth it shall die." Just as sure as 
God's word is true the death of the 
soul must follow sin, unless a remedy 
be found. 

And now let us see God's remedy. 

We have an account of this in vs. 8, g. 
A serpent of brass was made and put 
upon a pole, and all who looked to it 
were healed. Some might object and 
say it was a very unlikely remedy. 

If the wisest men among the Israel- 
ites and their best physicians had been 
asked to try and find a remedy for the 
bite of those fiery serpents, they might 
have searched a long time, and have 
tried a thousand things, but they never 
would have thought of this. And if any 
of them had thought of it, the rest 
would most likely have said, " Why 
that is only a piece of brass. What 
good can that do?" Very likely this 
is just what some of the people did say, 
or at least what they thought. 

And so God's remedy for sin seems a 
very unlikely one. Paul says, " the 
preaching of the cross was to the Greeks 
foolishness." The idea that men were 
to be saved by the death of Jesus on 



the cross, seemed to them so unlikely 
as to be regarded as foolish. 

It WAS A VERY SIMPLE REMEDY. The 

people had no disagreeable medicine to 
take ; no washing or anointing was to 
be done ; no plasters or poultices were 
to be applied ; no long and tedious 
course of treatment was to be employed. 
They had only to look and live. Many 
were so feeble and in such pain that 
they could do nothing to help them- 
selves or each other. If they had even 
been required to crawl up to the pole 
on which the serpent hung and touch 
it, many of them would have been 
unable to do it. But this was not neces- 
sary. High on a pole in the midst of 
their encampment, the serpent was lifted 
up. The poor suffering creatures had 
only to turn their eyes towards it, and 
directly they were healed. 

And so it is with the remedy for 
our souls provided in the gospel. We 
have nothing to do and nothing to pay. 
The command of God to every sinner 
is, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved." And what 
looking to the serpent was to the bitten 
Israelites, believing on Jesus is to us. 
And hence Jesus says to us, and to poor 
sinners everywhere, " Look unto me and 
be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth ; 
for besides me there is no Saviour." 
What a simple remedy this is! 

It WAS A SUCCESSFUL REMEDY; SO 

successful that every one who simply 
looked at it was cured. 



THE WONDERFUL CURE. 



27 



" It came to pass that if a serpent had 
bitten any man, when he beheld the 

SERPENT OF BRASS HE LIVED " (v. 9). No 

matter how long the man had been 
bitten, or how much he had suffered; 
no matter if the poison had gone 
all through his frame and mingled with 
every drop of his blood, so that he was 
just about to die; yet if he only looked 
to that brazen serpent on the pole, the 
wound would be healed : the effect of 
the poison would be undone. He would 
be made well. This was certain. It 
never failed. 

And so it is with Jesus and his 
cross. He " is able to save unto the 
uttermost, all that come unto God 
through him." His blood " cleanseth 
from all sin." . No matter how many 
our sins may be, or how great, he can 
take them away. His sweet promise 
is, to all who go to him just as they 
are, "Though your sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be as white as snow ; though 
they be red like crimson, they shall be 
as wool." Isaiah i. 18. 

All earthly physicians have some 
forms of disease brought before them 
which they cannot cure. But Jesus, 
the heavenly physician, never had such 
a case brought to him. He can cure 
all. He is willing to receive, and. he 



has power to help and save all who 
come to him. It was a great evil which 
came upon the Israelites in the wilder- 
ness ; but it was a great remedy which 
God provided to remove it. The dis- 
ease was common, painful, fatal; the 
remedy was very unlikely, very simple 
and very successful. 



God be merciful unto us and bless us ; and cause 
His face to shine upon us." 

" O Lord, turn not Thy face from us, 
Who lie in woful state, 
Lamenting sore our sinful life, 
Before Thy mercy's gate ; 

A gate which opens wide to those 

That truly mourn their sin : 
O, shut it not against us, Lord, 

But let us enter in. 

We need not to confess our life 

To Thee who best canst tell 
What we have been ; and what we are, 

O Lord, Thou knowest well; 

Wherefore to beg and to entreat, 

With tears we come to Thee, 
As children that have done amiss 

Fall at their father's knee. 

O Lord, we need not to repeat 

The blessing which we crave, 
When Thou dost know, before we ask, 

The thing that we would have. 

Mercy, O Lord, mercy we ask — 

This is our humble prayer ; 
For mercy, Lord, is all our suit; 

O, let Thy mercy spare. 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



IF we have been looking forward to a 
thing for a long time, we cannot 
help feeling a great interest, when, 
at last, it really comes to pass. Suppose 
you are away from home at school for 
six months. The months seem long, and 
you often think of the happy time you 
will have when vacation comes, and be 
at home again. And when that day 
arrives, what a happy time you have ! 

Before I went to visit the Holy Land, 
I had been thinking about it all my 
life. I often used to try and imagine how 
I should feel when I actually landed on 
its sacred shore, and began my journey 
through the land of the Bible. And I 
never shall forget the joy I felt on the 
first day spent in Palestine. But that 
was nothing to what the Israelites must 
have felt when they came to pass over 
Jordan, and to enter on land so long 
promised, and so filled with all that 
was good and delightful. We only 
went to visit that land, and travel 
through it for forty days. They en- 
tered it to have it as their own, and to 
live in it all their days. Their joy 
must have been greater than we can 
tell. 

Just as they entered, a miracle was 
wrought for them, of which we have an 
account in the third chapter of Joshua. 



At the time of the year when the Is- 
raelites reached the banks of the Jor- 
dan, the river was full, owing to the 
melting of the snow on the Lebanon 
mountains, among which the Jordan has 
its rise, and overflowed its banks. At 
other seasons of the year it is compar- 
atively low, and a good many feet be- 
low the banks between which it runs. 
As it flows through a level plain, when 
it overflowed, the water would spread 
out to a considerable distance on each 
side. This was its condition when the 
Israelites came to cross it. They saw 
it rolling on, a rapid flood, filling up its 
usual bed, and stretching out into the 
level plains on either side. There was 
no bridge. They had no boats. How 
were they to cross ? There was no 
way, and so God made one by miracle. 
The procession is formed for going 
over. It is a very long procession, 
made up of several millions of people. 
They begin to move, and march towards 
the river. The Ark, borne by the 
priests, leads the way. On they go in 
solemn silence, and as soon as their 
feet touch the edge of the waters, a 
wonderful thing takes place. At once 
the waters stop flowing, just as if a 
great, strong dam had been thrown in 
an instant across the river. There was 

(29) 



3° 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



no dam made of wood or stone, no bar- 
rier that could be seen or felt. There 
was, however, an invisible hindrance. 
It was made out of the will of God. 
That made the waters stop. As the 
people stood looking west, with their 
faces towards the river, the waters that 
came down on the right-hand side 
from the mountains in the north ceased 
to flow beyond a certain line, and 
gradually rose and rose till they be- 
came a heap, like a wall of glass. On 
the left-hand side the waters rolled 
away towards the sea ; and the bed of 
the river was left dry for miles, right 
before the people. How wonderful 
this was ! How it must have encour- 
aged the hearts of the Israelites! Yes, 
and how it must have discouraged the 
hearts of all the people in the land of 
Canaan ! 

This was the miracle which opened 
the way for them to enter the land 
which God had given. 

As soon as the bed of the river was 
left dry, the priests carried the Ark into 
the middle of the river bed, and there 
let it remain till all the people of Israel 
had quite passed over. What a sight 
that must have been ! There was the 
wall of water rising up towards the ! 
sky. At the foot of the wall stood the j 
sacred golden Ark, with the cloud of ; 
God's presence standing over it. God ! 
was in that cloud, and it was the God | 
in the cloud that kept the waters back, j 
What a wonderful display of God's I 



power! and he wanted the people to 
remember it. And this was the reason 
why he gave them the command which 
we have in Josh. iv. 2, 3. He gave direc- 
tions that twelve men, one from each 
tribe, should go into the bed of the 
river, and each of them take up a 
great stone, as large as he could carry. 
These were to be taken from the bed 
of the river near where the Ark stood, 
and carried up out of the river, and 
built up into a sort of pillar, at Gilgal, 
where they had their first encampment 
after entering the land. In our picture 
we see the men carrying these stones, 
just as it is described in verses 5 
and 8. 

In the 9th verse we have an account of 
another set of memorial stones built up. 
These were in the bed of the river, and 
were, no doubt, much larger than those 
that the men carried on their shoulders. 
This was a memorial pile built up on 
the spot where the ark halted. And, as 
the Jordan in its ordinary state was not 
a very deep river, such a pile as this 
would most likely be visible from the 
banks of the river. 

WHY DID GOD GIVE THIS COMMAND? 

It is easy enough to think of two 
reasons. 

One reason why God gave the com- 
mand about these memorial stones, no 
doubt was, for His own glory. In the 
second commandment of the law, God 
tells us that " He is a jealous God." 
This means that he is very careful 



MEMORIAL STONES. 



about his own honor. When he does 
anything for his people, it is right they 
should remember it and thank him for 
it. If we neglect to do this, we are 
keeping back from him what belongs to 
him; we are robbing God, and this is 
a dreadful tiling to do. When people 
rob churches we call it sacrilege ; and 
that is considered a very great sin; but 
to rob God is a still greater sin. 

You remember that the prophet Ssm- 
uel set up a stone on one occasion, and 
called it Ebenezer, saying, " Hitherto 
hath the Lord helped us." And if 
we are properly mindful of all that God 
has done for us, we shall have the way 
of our pilgrimage all lined with memor- 
ial stones or Ebenezers like those of 
Samuel. 

The other reason why God ordered 
these "memorial stones" to be set up 
was, no doubt, for the good of his people. 
Gratitude pays. To keep alive in our 
hearts the memory of God's goodness 
to us, and to thank him for it, is very 
profitable. But it does not come natu- 
ral. We find it easy to remember the 
injury that any one has done to us, but 
very hard to remember the kindnesses 
that have been received. When our 
Saviour healed the ten lepers, only one 
of them came back to thank him for it. 
When he saw this, he said, " Were there 
not ten cleansed ? but where are the 
nine? There are not found that re- 
turned to give glory to God, save this 
stranger?" And, if you notice, you 



will find in our churches, that out of 
ten or even twenty persons who ask to 
be prayed for, whe'n sick, or going to 
sea, hardly one will be found to thank 
God for making them- well again, or for 
bringing them safe home from sea. Let 
us try to be more thankful. 



MY TIMES ARE IN THY HAND. 

Father, I know that all my life 

Is portioned out for me ; 
And the changes that are sure to come 

I do not fear to see ; 
But I ask Thee for a present mind, 

Intent on pleasing Thee. 

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, 
Through constant watching wise, 

To meet the glad with joyful smiles, 
And wipe the weeping eyes ; 

And a heart at leisure from itself 
To soothe and sympathize. 

I would not have the restless will 

That hurries to and fio, 
Seeking for some great thing to do, 

Or secret thing to know; 
I would be treated as a child, 

And guided where I go. 

Wherever in the world I am, 

In whatsoe'er estate, 
I have a fellowship with hearts 

To keep and cultivate ; 
And a work of lowly love to do 

For the Lord on whom I wait. 

So I ask Thee for the daily strength, 

To none that ask denied ; 
And a mind to blend with outward life, 

While keeping at Thy side; 
Content to fill a little space, 

If Thou be glorified. 



THE SECRET SPOIL. 



IF we saw a stream that was flowing 
on rapidly, stand still all at once ; 
or a stone that was falling from 
the sky suddenly arrested in the midst 
of its fall, we would infer that there 
must be some very special cause for so 
strange a thing. And so, if we had been 
watching the course of a large army like 
that of the Israelites, if we had seen a 
way opened for them by miracle across 
the Jordan, and a strong city like Jer- 
icho taken in a most wonderful way, 
and then had seen them defeated and 
driven back by a handful of men, we 
would have been very sure that there 
must be some particular thing that was 
the cause of it. 

This was just what Joshua felt when 
Israel was defeated, as we see from 
Josh. vii. 6-10. God told him what 
the cause was, and how it must be 
removed. 

It was a secret sin. 

In verses 20, 21, we have the sinner's 
own account of what he had done. But 
some may ask what was there so very 
wrong in Achan's taking a part of the 
spoil, seeing it is a common thing for 
soldiers to do so in the cities that they 
conquer? But the Israelites were God's 
soldiers and servants. They were not 
fighting for revenge. They were doing 



God's work. The people in that country 
were very wicked. God wanted to pun- 
ish them for their sins. He had a right 
to do this, and to do it in any way that 
he pleased. He might have made use 
of a famine, or a pestilence, or an earth- 
quake for this purpose. But he chose 
to make use of the Israelites as the 
means of punishing these people. And 
he told them as we read in Josh. vi. 
18, 19, that none of them were to take 
anv of the gold and silver found in 
those cities. This was all to be given 
to the Lord. Such was God's law to 
the Israelites about this matter. All sin 
I consists in breaking some law of God. 
! Achan's sin consisted in breaking the 
i law God gave to the Israelites, about 
! this part of the spoil. It was a secret 
\ sin. I suppose he found himself alone 
in the house where these valuable 
things were, when Jericho was taken. 
He thought there was no one there 
to see, and that he might as well take 
them as not. He forgot: "Thou God 
sees I meT "The eyes of the Lord are 
in every place, beholding the evil and 
the good!' 

Achan thought he was alone \n\i<zw he 
committed this sin ; and so he was, but 
God was there. 

The Israelites expected to be victori- 

(33) 



34 



THE SECRET SPOIL. 



ous in every battle. But in the next 
movement after Jericho was taken, they 
were defeated, and forced to flee before 
their enemies. This frightened them 
very much. They could not tell what 
to make of it. Joshua spoke to God 
about it in prayer, and asked him what 
was the cause of it. God told him that 
the commandment he had given them 
about the spoils had been broken by 
one of the soldiers, and that the man 
who had committed this sin must be 
found out and punished, or else he 
would not help them any more. 

God knew who it was that had done 
this wicked thing, but he did not tell 
Joshua. He directed him to find out 
the offender by casting lots. He did so. 
God directed the lot. First the tribe, 
then the family, and then the man was 
taken who had committed the sin. 

In verse 19, Joshua exhorts Achan 
to confess what he had done. He saw 
there would be no use in lying about it, 
so he made a full confession (v. 21). He 
told what he had stolen, and where it 
was hid in his tent. Joshua sent mes- 
sengers, and they found the stolen 
articles all there. In our picture we see 
the inside of his tent. There is the hole 
which has been dug. The man stand- 
ing by it has the " goodly Babylonish 



garment " over his arm. The other 
man kneeling down by the hole is 
taking the " wedge of gold " out of it. 
Achan then knew that his secret sin 
was found out. It was a discovered sin. 

What a troublesome sin it was to all 
the people ! They were defeated in bat- 
tle. This filled them with -sorrow and 
shame, and fear. And not only defeat, 
but death followed from this sin of 
Achan. In verse 5, we read that thirty- 
six men among the Israelites were 
slain while they were fleeing before 
their enemies. Probably each of them 
was the father of a family. And if we 
could have seen the thirty-six wives of 
these men mourning for their hus- 
bands, and the four or five times thirty- 
six children, weeping for their lost 
fathers, we would understand what a 
troublesome sin this was. It troubled 
the people. 

And then it was troublesome to Achan 
and his family (v. 25). He was stoned 
with stones and burned with fire. A 
great heap of stones was raised over 
him. That was intended as a warning 
monument. The best inscription to 
have put on that monument would have 
been : Sin is a troublesome thing ; and 
Remember God's presence. Be afraid 
of sin. 



THE SHEPHERD LAD. 



THE day in the history of the Is- 
raelites with which the 1 8th chap- 
ter of 1st Samuel begins was a 
day that would be long remembered. 
The famous battle between David and 
Goliath had just been fought. The 
two armies had watched the fight. 
How great their interest in it must 
have been ! We can easily imagine 
how every soldier in the camp trem- 
bled for their young champion, when 
they saw that huge giant go stalk- 
ing forth in his wrath against him, 
as if he would trample him in the 
dust. But they had not long to 
tremble. David runs to meet Goliath. 
He puts a stone in the sling. He 
takes careful aim, and slings it; away 
goes the stone; it smites the giant in 
the forehead ; he staggers, and 
tumbles to the ground. The earth 
shakes. Then a great shout is heard. 
The Philistines rise and flee, and the 
Israelites pursue them. 

But now the chase is over. The 
soldiers return, and David is brought 
into the presence of king Saul. Here 
our picture represents David in the 
palace. He has his harp in his hand, 
playing before the king, who is 
troubled with low spirits. There are 
three scenes I wish you to look at — 
(36) 



David and Jonathan, David and the 
singers, and David and Said. 

DAVID AND JONATHAN. 

We read about what took place be- 
tween them in 1 Sam. xviii. 1, 3, 4. 
Jonathan was the eldest son of king 
Saul. He was, as they call it in 
countries where kings reign, " the heir 
apparent " to the throne. This means 
that he was the one who was expected 
to be king when his father should die. 
W r e are not told what his age was. He 
was probably somewhat older than 
David. He was a very brave young 
man. We have an illustration of his 
courage in the fourteenth chapter of 
this book. There we read how he 
went all alone, excepting his servant, 
and attacked one of the forts of the 
Philistines, and took it from them, and 
gained a great victory. 

He seems to have fallen in love with 
David as soon as he met with him. 
When he saw him go so bravely 
against the great giant, and conquer 
him, he admired him very much. This 
feeling was greatly increased in the 
mind of Jonathan when he saw that 
David did not feel proud of what he 
had done, but was as modest as he was 
brave. And so he could not help but 
love him. The chapter opens with an 



THE SHEPHERD LAD. 



37 



account of the first meeting between 
David and Jonathan. They made a 
covenant, or agreement, together, to be 
loving friends to each other as long as 
they lived. It was customary in old 
times, when people did this, to give 
keepsakes to each other. And so we 
read in verse 4, how Jonathan gave 
David his robe, and his sword, and his 
bow, and his girdle. And as he was 
the king's son, these were no doubt 
very valuable. But David prized them 
much more as a proof of Jonathan's 
love for him, than for the amount of 
money they were worth. 

This friendship between them lasted 
as long as Jonathan lived. And it 
never changed. When Jonathan found 
that David was likely to be made 
king instead of himself, he did not be- 
come jealous of him, but loved him 
still, as a real, true friend. This shows 
us what a generous, unselfish, noble 
young man Jonathan was. Let us not 
only admire him, but try to imitate 
him. 

DAVID AND THE SINGERS. 

We read about this from the sixth to 
the ninth verses. This probably took 
place some time after David's victory 
over Goliath. It is supposed by some 
that when, the war was all over, Saul 
made a journey through a part of the 
country. As he went from city to 
city, they may have had processions 
and dances in honor of the occasion. 
And then no doubt they had a song 



to sing, in celebration of their victories 
over the Philistines. The words in 
verse 7 were probably a sort of chorus 
to this song : 4< Saul has slain his 
thousands, and David his ten thou- 
sands." This was just the simple 
truth. But it is not always best to tell 
the whole truth. It certainly was not 
wise to tell it here, as these women did. 
It made a great deal of trouble for 
poor David. 

Saul was very much offended by 
this song of the women. He was a 
proud, selfish, jealous man. He 
thought the people wanted to have 
David made king at once, instead of 
himself. Yet no one thought of this 
but himself. It was very foolish in him 
to feel so about it. What a contrast we 
have here between Jonathan, the noble, 
generous son, and Saul, the gloomy, 
selfish, unhappy father! Who would 
not rather be Jonathan than Saul ! 

DAVID AND SAUL. 

We read about this from verses 10 to 
16. In the first of these verses we are 
told of " the evil spirit from God " that 
came upon Saul. It is said here that 
Saul " prophesied." This does not 
mean that he foretold future events. It 
only means that he talked aloud or 
raved, as crazy people sometimes do. 

We first read about this trouble 
which Saul had in 1 Sam. xvi. 14. 
There it says that " the spirit of the 
Lord had departed from Saul, and an 
evil spirit from the Lord troubled 



38 



THE SHEPHERD LAD. 



him." This does not mean that God 
actually sent an evil spirit to worry 
Saul. It means that he had sinned 
against God, and he took away his 
Holy Spirit, from him, and left him to 
himself. He became gloomy, low- 
spirited, and melancholy. When this 
trouble first came upon the king, it was 
found that music would relieve him. 
And then David, the shepherd boy, 
was called to play on his harp before 
the king. He seems to have been 
known even then as a sweet singer. 
And when harp and voice united, the 
music soothed the troubled king and 
charmed away his gloomy thoughts 
and made him feel better. 

And although David was now a 
soldier and a great warrior, he was 
ready to make himself useful in any 
way. When he saw one of the king's 
spells of melancholy coming on him, 
he began to sing and play, as he had 
formerly been in the habit of doing. 
Saul had a javelin in his hand as a 
sceptre, and giving way to his feelings 
of jealousy and anger, he aimed it 
at David, and tried to take away 
his life. But David avoided the blow 
and got away. This was the be- 
ginning of a long course of trials to 
David, which never ended till the 
death of Saul. When we see how Saul 
lost his kingdom and his life, on ac- 



count of his disobedience, we may well 
learn what a sad thing it is to give way 
to sin. And when we see how David 
was preserved through all his persecu- 
tions, we may learn how surely God 
takes care of his people. 



11 My soul followeth hard after thee ; thy right hand 
upholdeth me." 

holy Saviour, Friend unseen ! 

Since on Thine arm thou bidd'st me lean, 
Help me, throughout life's varying scene, 
By faith to cling to Thee. 

Blest with this fellowship divine, 
Take what Thou wilt, I'll ne'er repine ; 
Even as the branches to the vine, 
My soul would cling to Thee. 

Without a murmur I dismiss 

My former dreams of earthly bliss — 

My joy, my consolation this, 

Each hour to cling to Thee. 

What though the world deceitful prove, 
And earthly friends and joys remove, 
With patient, uncomplaining love 
Still would I cling to Thee. 

Oft when I seem to trend alone 
Some barren waste, with thorns o'ergrown, 
Thy voice of love in gentlest tone 
Whispers, " Still cling to me." 

Though faith and hope may long be tried, 

1 ask not, need not aught beside ; 
How safe, how calm, how satisfied, 

The souls that cling to thee! 

Blest is my lot, whate'er befall — 
What can disturb me, who appall, 
While, as my strength, my rock, my all, 
Saviour, I cling to thee ! 



RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL. 



SAUL had been interrupted in his 
persecution of David by the Phil- 
istines.. They had come up into 
the land of Israel with an army, and 
Saul had to go and fight them. This 
crave David and his men a little time to 
rest, which they were glad to have. 
But now the war is over. The Philis- 
tines have been driven out of the land. 
Saul having at present nothing special 
to do, begins his old work again of 
trying to catch and kill David. 

David had retired to the southern 
part of Judea, to " the wilderness of En- 
gedi," on the southwestern side of the 
Dead Sea. This was the wildest and 
most desolate part of the whole coun- 
try. It was full of steep, barren moun- 
tains. These are called M the rocks of 
the wild goats" (i Sam. xxiv. 1-16), 
because the wild goats made their 
home there. In some places they were 
so steep that none but goats could 
climb them. The mountains were full 
of caves, many of them being large and 
winding. Saul, with his soldiers, hav- 
ing followed David into that district, 
one night they went to sleep in one of 
these caves. David saw them. At 
midnight he, with some of his men, 
went and found the king and his at- 
tendants fast asleep. David's men 
(40) 



wanted to kill Saul, but he would not 
let them do so, but he cut off the skirt 
of the king's robe. 

In the morning, and at a distance, 
David called to the king. He told him 
how near he had been to him in the 
night, and held up the skirt of the robe 
to prove it. He showed how easily he 
could have killed him then, if he had 
wished, and referred to this as proof 
that he had no desire to injure him, 
and begged the king not to persecute 
him any more. Saul was greatly sur- 
prised and moved at this. The thought 
of the great danger he had been in, 
and David's nobleness in sparing him, 
melted him to tears. He confessed 
how wrong he had been, and said he 
felt surer than ever that David would 
be king, and asked him to promise to 
be kind to his family when that took 
place. Then Saul returned home. 

Now let us think of David's duty. 
In verse 4, when Davids men found 
that Saul was asleep before him, they 
tried to persuade him that he ougfot to 
kill him. They said God had given 
him the power and the opportunity, 
and now it was his duty to do so. But 
David thought differently. Though 
Saul had done wrong in persecuting 
David, it would not have made it right 



RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL. 



41 



for David to kill Saul. David knew 
this. He knew that two wrongs never 
make one right. He knew that we 
may have the power and the opportu- 
nity of doing many things, and yet it 
would be wrong for us to do them. 
You may have the power and the 
opportunity to catch flies and pull off 
their wings and legs, but it is wrong to 
do so. Flies are God's creatures, and 
we have no right to injure or destroy 
them, or to cause them pain, for pleas- 
ure or amusement. And so with many 
other things. David's duty was to wait 
till God had removed Saul. 

Think also of David's respect for au- 
thority. Saul had been very ungrateful 
to David, and had treated him shame- 
fully, trying again and again to kill him. 
At this very time he was hunting him 
with an army of three thousand men. 
This was enough to make David feel 
very badly towards him, and yet he 
has no unkind, angry or disrespectful 
word to say. He only speaks of him 
as " the Lord's anointed " (v. 6), as 
his "master" and "lord the king," 
and, with the greatest respect and 
reverence, he bows himself before the 
king. What a good example we have 
here! We are required to show all 
due respect to our parents and others 
in authority. And even if their char- 
acters are not good, we are bound to 
respect them for the sake of their po- 
sition and office, as David did to Saul. 



Think further of David's humility. 
Many persons think very highly of 
themselves when they do great things. 
David had fought and conquered the 
great giant Goliath, when no one else 
in all the army of Israel was willing to 
fight him. He had gained many victo- 
ries over the enemies of his country. 
He was a great favorite with all the 
people. In their songs the women gave 
him more honor even than the king; 
saying, " Saul has slain his thousands, 
and David his ten thousands" (1 Sam. 
xviii. 7). Yet David was not proud, 
and thought very humbly of himself. 
See how he speaks of himself in 1 Sam. 
xxiv. 14, as only "a dead dog" or "a 
flea " that the king was hunting. Every 
view of David's character is bright and 
beautiful. How different is poor, for- 
saken Saul! Saul weeps (v. 16). He is 
convinced that he has done wrong. He is 
not only convinced of his wrong-doing, 
but openly confesses it (v. 17). He 
gives up the pursuit of David for the 
present. He goes back to his home a 
mortified and convinced man, but not 
converted. He was none the better for 
all he saw, and said, and felt on this oc- 
casion, for further on, we find him again 
persecuting David, and trying once 
more to kill him. Let us be careful 
not to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit 
of God, remembering that it is written : 
" Woe unto them when I depart from 
t/iem." 



GOD'S COVENANT WITH DAVID. 



IN the first part of the seventh chap- 
ter of second Samuel we have 
narrated a talk that David had 
with Nathan, the prophet. The thought 
had come into David's mind to build a 
temple for God. He had built a nice 
house for himself, but the Ark of God, 
around which the people met to wor- 
ship, was kept in a tent, where it had 
been ever since the Israelites were in 
the wilderness. David did not feel 
comfortable in his beautiful house and 
leave only a tent for God. So he told 
the prophet Nathan that he had made 
up his mind to build a large, handsome 
temple for the Ark and for the wor- 
ship of God. Nathan was very much 
pleased at the idea, and encouraged 
David to carry out his plan. 

But God told the prophet that he 
did not want David to build this tem- 
ple, because he was a man of war 
and had shed blood. However he was 
pleased that David had thought of 
doing so, but told him to let it alone, 
and that his son when he came to be 
king would be a man of peace, and 
would build this temple. 

Then God told David about his cov- 
enant (see vs. 10-17), which means his 
plan or purpose, and which was that 
the future kings of Israel should all be 



the descendants of David. This was 
true, for as long as the Israelites had a 
king, he was always a descendant of 
David. And when Christ was born 
into the world, he was the last king of 
David's line, because he was to be king 
for ever, as the angel Gabriel said, when 
telling of his birth to Mary: "The 
Lord God shall give unto him the 
throne of his father David : and he 
shall reign over the house of Jacob 
forever." 

When David heard about this plan 
or covenant of God, it had a great 
effect on him. In verse 18 we read 
that " David went in and sat before the 
Lord." Look at the picture. The crown 
is laid at the feet of the king. His hands 
are clasped, and he is thinking of all 
that has happened to him since the day 
when, as a shepherd boy, he was called 
suddenly in from the field to his father's 
house, and the good old prophet Sam- 
uel poured the oil on his head, and 
anointed him in the presence of his 
family to be the future king of Israel. 

As he lliougJit of himself he says in 
v. 18: "Who am I, Lord God ? and 
what is my house?" He did not feel 
lifted up at the thought of what God had 
done for him. You know that if our 
hands or faces are soiled by dust, we 

(43) 



44 



GOD'S COVENANT WITH DAVID. 



may not see it while we are in a room 
where there is but little light. But if 
we go and stand in the full light of the 
sun, we will see at once every stain and 
spot. And when God comes near to 
us, it is like bringing us into the full 
beams of the sun. We see things 
wrong about ourselves then, that we 
never saw before. This was just the 
way Job felt when God came near him 
(see Job xlii. 5, 6). And so it was with 
David when God spoke to him. It 
gave him very high thoughts of God, 
and very low thoughts of himself. 

In verse 22 we have David's thoughts 
about God. He says : " Thou art great, 
Lord God, for there is none like thee." 
He compares the. Lord to. the gods of 
the heathen. And well he might say, 
that among all the idols there is no 
god like the Lord, for there is none 
like him in power. Dagon, you re- 
member, was the god of the Philistines. 
But when the Ark was carried into 
Dagon's temple, every night an unseen 
hand hurled Dagon from his place, and 
threw him on his face. Every morning 
the Philistines helped their poor god 
to get up into his place, but the next 
night he was thrown down again. By 
and by they got tired. Then they sent 
the Ark back again to the land of Is- 
rael. When they did this, they were 
saying with David, " Thou art great, O 
Lord God, for there is none like thee!' 



After that, David prayed for the ful- 
filment of God's promise (v. 25). When 
men give us a promise, they expect us 
to rest in that and not say anything 
more about it. But it is different with 
God. When he gives us a promise, 
he expects us to keep praying for it 
till it is fulfilled. This is just what 
God means in Ezekiel xxxvi. 36-38. 
Please get your Bible and turn to this 
passage and read it. It teaches us to 
pray for the very things that God has 
promised to do for us, and it promises 
magnificent blessings. 

Then David prayed for God's glory 
(v. 26). When our Saviour was praying 
on earth he said, "Father, glorify thy 
name." And in the Lord's prayer we 
pray, " Thine is the kingdom, and the 
power, and the glory!' We should 
care most for God's glorv. 

Further, David prayed for his family 
(vs. 26-29). He was very anxious that 
his children who were to come after 
him should share in the same blessing. 
And God remembered this prayer of 
David and answered it. In 2 Chron. 
xxi. 7, we find God sparing the people 
when they deserved punishment, be- 
cause of this covenant ; and if we would 
get good to ourselves, and do good to 
others, we must be people of prayer, for 
prayer opens a channel from heaven to 
earth, that brings down God's choicest 



I blessings. 



WHAT TO KNOW, DO AND LOVE. 



THIS picture represents an interest- 
ing scene in the life of David. It 
is near the close of his life. He 
knows that the time is close at hand 
when he must die. He gathers the 
princes, and captains, and great men of 
the nation together (i Chron. xxviii. i- 
10), and repeats how anxious he had 
been to build a temple for the worship 
of God, but that God had told him that 
he was not to do so, but that his son 
Solomon, who was to be king, was to 
build it. Then he tells them how God 
had promised to be with Solomon, and 
to bless and prosper him in his king- 
dom (vs. 6, 7), and gives good counsel 
to all these people, and exhorts them to 
serve God, in order that they might 
secure his blessing, and so be made 
prosperous and happy (v. 8). And 
then, in the presence of all the people, 
he turns to Solomon, his son, who is 
standing by his side, and gives his 
charge to him, in v. 9: "And thou, 
Solomon my son, know thou the God 
of thy father, and serve him with a per- 
fect heart and with a willing mind : for 
the Lord searcheth all hearts, and un- 
derstandeth all the imaginations of the 
.noughts: if thou seek him, he will be 
bund of thee ; but if thou forsake him, 
!,e will cast thee off for ever." 
(46) 



When we look at this charge of 
David to his son, we find that there are 
three important things : first, what he 
ought to do ; second, how he ought to 
do it; and third, why he ought to do it. 

It is nearly three thousand years 
since this gathering at Jerusalem took 
place. All the people present on that 
occasion have long ago passed away. 
The great temple that Solomon after- 
wards built, the palace in which he 
lived, his throne, and his crown, and 
his kingdom, are all gone. But the 
charge that David gave to Solomon on 
that day remains. Yes, and it is a 
charge for you and for me as much as 
it was for Solomon. It suits us as well 
as it suited him. And it is just as im- 
portant that we should keep this charge, 
as it was that he should. And so, while 
speaking of what David said to Solo- 
mon, we may think of the good old 
king as saying the same things to us. 

David told Solomon what he ought 
to know and do. "Know thou the God 
of thy father and serve him." These 
are the most important things for all 
young people to attend to. When 
David charged Solomon to know God, 
he meant that he should try and find 
out what his character is, and what he 
expects his people to do. This is the 



WHAT TO KNOW, DO AND LOVE. 



47 



most valuable of all knowledge. We 
cannot get this knowledge by studying 
history, or botany, or astronomy. God 
is the only one who can give us this 
knowledge. He gives it to us in his 
blessed book, the Bible. 

Only a small part of the Bible had 
been written when David gave this 
charge to Solomon. But we have the 
whole Bible now. And if we want to 
know God, we must read and study this 
blessed book. And while we do this, 
we must use the prayer which David 
used when he said, " Open thou mine 
eyes that I may behold wondrous things 
out of thy law." And then we shall 
'• know the God of our fathers." 

But Solomon was charged to " serve 
God," as well as to know him. And 
the knowledge of God is given to us 
for this very purpose — to teach us how 
to serve him. When the sun rises in 
the morning and sends his bright light 
into our windows, it is in order that we 
may see how to do our daily work. 
And so God gives us the knowledge of 
himself in his word, on purpose that we 
may serve him. He made us for this. 
He redeemed us for this. He preserves 
us for this. And above all things in the 
world, this is what we should desire to 
do. Nothing is so honorable, nothing 
so pleasant, nothing so profitable as 
serving God. May God teach us all to 
know him and to serve him ! This was 
what David charged Solomon to do. 

But David told Solomon not only 



what he was to do, but how he was to 
do it. " With a perfect heart and with 
a willing mind." "A perfect heart " 
here does not mean a heart free from 
sin. None of us have such hearts. If 
we waited for this, we never should be- 
gin to love God at all. By " a perfect 
heart " here David meant a true, sincere, 
honest heart. He meant that we should 
not only put our heads, our hands, our 
feet into God's service, but our hearts 
also. He meant just the same thing 
that the apostle Paul did, when he said, 
"Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as 
to the Lord " (Col. iii. 23). God says 
to each one of us, " Give me thine heart." 
And we never can serve him in such a 
way as to please him until we do it in 
this way, " with a perfect " or honest 
" heart." 

And if we bring " a perfect heart " to 
God's service, in this sense, we shall be 
sure to bring with it " a willing mind." 
God does not care to have us serve him 
as a slave serves the master who stands 
by him with a whip in hand, ready to 
lash him the moment his work begins 
to drag. And this is the reason why 
we are told to know God before we at- 
tempt to serve him. For when we 
learn how good, and kind, and loving 
God is, and how much he has done for 
us, then we cannot help but love him. 
And when it is from love that we desire 
to serve him, we shall indeed serve him, 
as David charged Solomon to do, " with 
a perfect heart and with a willing mind." 



48 



WHAT TO KNOW, DO AND LOVE. 



May God help us all so to serve 
him ! 

Now we have seen what David 
charged Solomon to do, and how he 
was to do it. He also told him wJiy he 
ought to do this. He gave three rea- 
sons for doingr it. 

o 

One reason why David charged Solo- 
mon to serve God in this way, is, that 
he cannot be deceived. This is what is 
meant when it says, " The Lord search- 
eth all hearts, and understandeth all the 
•imaginations of the thoughts." If we 
pretend to serve him and do not give 
him our hearts, he knows it, because 
he can see right into our hearts. It is 
easy enough for us to deceive one an- 
other, because we do not know each 
other's hearts. But if we say to God 
anything with our lips which we do not 
really mean in our hearts, he knows all 
about it at once. What an illustration 
of this we have in Ananias and Sap- 
phira, who were found out " Lying 
unto God." 

The next reason why David urged 
Solomon to serve God in this way was, 
that he woidd be rewarded if he did it. 
"If thou seek him, he will be found of 
thee" When a vessel goes to sea we 
never can be sure that it will come 
back in safety. When we engage in 
any other work in this world, we never 
can be sure of success. But if we be- 
gin the blessed work of serving God in 
the way here spoken of, we are sure of 



success. God's promise to us is, " Ye 
shall seek me, and find me, when ye 
shall search for me with all your heart" 
(Jer. xxix. 13). We shall be rewarded 
if we do this. This is a good reason. 

And then the third reason is, we shall 
be ruined if we do not seek God in 
this way. " If thou forsake him, he 
will cast thee off for ever." What a 
dreadful thing it would be to have God 
" cast us off for ever ! " Nothing could 
help us, nothing could comfort us or 
do us any good, if God should cast us 
off. I pray that none of my readers 
may ever find themselves thus " cast 
off" from God. But if we would 
escape this ruin and secure the reward 
here spoken of, we must try to keep 
Davids Charge to Solomon. 



"Keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not."* 

"A charge to keep I have, 

A God to glorify, 
A never-dying soul to save, 

And fit it for the sky, 
To serve the present age, 

My calling to fulfil ; 
Oh, may it all my powers engage 

To do my Master's will ! 

"Arm me with jealous care, 

As in Thy sight to live ; 
And oh ! Thy servant, Lord, prepare 

A strict account to give ! 
Help me to watch and pray, 

And on Thyself rely, 
Assured, if I my trust betray, 

I shall for ever die." 



WISDOM, WEALTH, AND BLESSING. 



SOLOMON had been king about ten 
or twelve years, during which he 
had been very busy. He had 
built a beautiful temple for the worship 
of God. He had also built a splendid 
palace for himself to live in, with the 
queen, his wife, for he had married the 
daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 
At the same time he had built a large 
fbet of ships, which went out on long 
voyages, occupying three years. We 
are told (i Kings x. 22) that these ships 
were called "-ships of Tarshish." They 
are supposed to have been ships of the 
largest size then built. We cannot tell 
where Tarshish and Ophir were, the 
places to which these ships are said to 
have gone. They are supposed to have 
been places far off in the East, some- 
where in the Indian Ocean. Wherever 
these vessels went, they carried the 
fame of Solomon's greatness and glory. 
And what strange cargoes they brought 
back ! These we are told were made 
up of "gold and silver, ivory, and 
apes and peacocks." In this way 
people in distant parts of the world 
got to hear about Solomon. Then 
numbers of distinguished strangers 
came to visit him, and among these was 
the queen of Sheba. She is repre- 
sented in the picture, and this leads us 
(5o) 



to speak of Solomon in the height of 
his prosperity. 

There are three things about it which 
we wish to notice. These are : the 
promise of prosperity made to Solomon : 
the fulfilment of this promise, and what 
this prosperity illustrates. 

THE PROMISE OF PROSPERITY. 

God had given David a promise 
about Solomon's prosperity. In 2 
Samuel vii. 12-14, before Solomon 
was born, he had promised to give him 
a son who should be king after him, 
and who should build the temple that 
David had wanted to build, and who 
should be a great and prosperous king. 
In addition to this, God had given to 
Solomon himself a promise about his 
prosperity. We find this in 2 Chron. i. 
12. When God came to Solomon in a 
dream by night, and offered to give 
him anything he might ask, he only 
asked to have wisdom to be able to 
rule and govern his people in the best 
possible way. God was so pleased 
with this, that he promised to give him 
not only wisdom, but also riches and 
honor greater than any other king had 
ever had. 

And here we see clearly what the 
promises were, about Solomon's pros- 
perity. Now let us see 



WISDOM, WEALTH, AND BLESSING. 



5* 



HOW THESE PROMISES WERE FULFILLED. 

One thing that had been promised to 
Solomon was wisdom. This promise 
was fulfilled by making him the wisest 
king that ever lived. We are told that 
"he spake three thousand proverbs: 
and his songs were a thousand and 
five" (1 Kings iv. 32). We have the 
evidence of Solomon's wisdom in one 
of the books of the Bible, which 
he wrote, that is, the " Book of Pro- 
verbs." These are called " The pro- 
verbs of Solomon." We have one, of 
Solomon's songs in the book of Can- 
ticles. If the others were all like this, 
we may well feel sorry that a thousand 
and four of such songs should have 
been lost. It was the report of his 
great wisdom which brought the queen 
of Sheba to visit him. Sheba or Saba, 
the country from which she came, is 
supposed to be in Arabia Felix. It 
was a long journey for her to take. 
She had to travel all the way by land, 
in her own conveyance. We are not 
told how long she stayed. But no 
doubt she made a pretty long visit. 
She asked Solomon all sorts of hard 
questions, and he answered them all. 
She was not disappointed in anything. 
She could hardly believe all that she 
had heard about this great and wise 
king, but when she came and saw, and 
heard for herself, she said that " the 
half was not told me." 

In addition to his wisdom, the prom- 
ise of riches was so fulfilled, that he 



" made silver to be in Jerusalem as 
stones . . . for abundance " (1 Kings 
x. 27). And his honor was equal to 
his wisdom and riches. Not one of 
God's promises to him failed. Men's 
promises are often broken, but God's 
promises are never broken. And so in 
Solomon's prosperity we see how all 
the promises made to him were ful- 
filled. 

There is one other thing about Solo- 
mon's prosperity, and it is, 

WHAT IT ILLUSTRATES. 

Solomon, in the wisdom and wealth 
which he had, and in the peacefulness 
and glory of his kingdom, was intended 
to be an illustration of the character of 
Christ, and of the greater glory of Jiis 
kingdom. This is what the apostle 
Paul means when he speaks of these 
Old Testament histories as being 
shadows of good things to come, " but 
the body is of Christ " (Col. ii. 17). Solo- 
mon in his kingdom was one of these 
shadows. So that when we are reading 
about his riches, and wisdom, and glory, 
we may well think of Jesus, and say, 
"A greater than Solomon is here." 

Nothing shows us this more beauti- 
fully than Psalm lxxii. The heading 
of this Psalm in our Bibles is, "A Psalm 
for Solomon.'" The last verse of the 
Psalm shows that David wrote it. It 
begins with a prayer for David him- 
self, as well as for Solomon his son : 
"Give the king thy judgments, O God, 
and thy righteousness unto the king's 



5 2 



WISDOM, WEALTH, AND BLESSING. 



son," and he goes on to tell what 
kind of a king Solomon would be, and 
what sort of a kingdom he would have. 
Then he reims to get a view of Christ 
and his glorious kingdom, and in a 
moment he loses sight of Solomon 
and his royal splendor. He forgets 
all about him, and can think and 
speak of nothing but Christ, and the 
glories of his kingdom, and the^ bless- 
ings the world would receive through 
him. In the sixth verse, these are 
beautifully compared to the reviving 
effect of showers "of ' rain on the 
grass that has just been mowed. " He 
shall come down like rain upon the 
mown grass : as showers that water 
the earth." And then the rest of the 
Psalm is occupied in showing how the 
kingdom of Christ will spread into all 
lands, and fill the world with peace and 
happiness. " For he shall deliver the 
needy when he crieth ; the poor also, 
and him that hath no helper. He shall 
spare the poor and needy, and shall 
save the souls of the needy. He shall 
redeem their soul from deceit and vio- 
lence : and precious shall their blood 
be in his sight." 



And so we have seen what the prom- 
ise of prosperity to Solomon was, how 
that promise was fulfilled, and what the 
fulfilment of that promise illustrates. 

Let us do all we can to help others 
to know about Christ and his promised 
kingdom, and while doing this, let our 
earnest prayer be, " Thy kingdom 
come! " 



"Jl/en shall be blessed in him : all nations shall call 
hiv i blessed.' 1 '' 
"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run, 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more. 

For him shall endless prayer he made 
And princes throng to crown his head ; 
His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise 
With every morning sacrifice. 

People and realms of every tongue 
Dwell on his. love with sweetest song, 
And infant voices shall proclaim 
Their early blessings on his name. 

Blessings abound where'er he reigns ; 
The prisoner leaps to break his chains ; 
The weary find eternal rest ; 
And all the sons of want are blest. 

Let every creature rise and bring 
Peculiar honors to our King, 
Angels descend with songs again, 
And earth repeat the loud Amen." 



THE FATHER'S CARE. 



HOW strange are the actions of 
Elijah ! And how much more 
strange is the way in which 
his life was ended ! He was one 
of the only two men, in this world 
of ours, of whom we read they never 
died. When his work was finished, he 
was taken up to heaven in a chariot of 
fire. It is well worth our while to study 
his life and character. 

In I Kings, 17th chapter, he is men- 
tioned for the first time. We are not 
told anything about the place where he 
was born, or who were his parents, or 
how he had been brought up, or when 
he became, or how long he had been 
acting as, a prophet. We know nothing 
at all about him till his name is men- 
tioned at the beginning of this chapter, 
and here he seems to be, as the picture 
represents him, a middle-aged man. 
He appears to have been well known 
to his countrymen. His name means, 
" whose God is Jehovah." The Jews 
were very fond of weaving in with 
their own personal names the name of 
God. With them the Hebrew name 
for God was El. 

This prophet is called " Elijah the 

Tishbite." This is supposed to refer to 

a place called Thisbe, as the place in 

which he was born, or where he lived. 

(54) 



He was said to be "of the inhabitants 
of Gilead," which was a district of 
country on the east side of the river 
Jordan. But we know of no place in 
Gilead named Thisbe, and so it is im- 
possible for us to find out anything 
about this strange man. God has been 
pleased to cover up the earlier history 
of Elijah, and with all our searching we 
cannot uncover it. 

At this time Ahab was the king of 
Israel. He was a very bad man. He 
had married a bad woman. Her name 
was Jezebel. She was not a Jewess 
but a heathen. She had been brought 
up to worship the idol Baal, and she 
made her husband an idolator. And 
then they both together tried all they 
could to make the Israelites give up the 
worship of God, and become wor- 
shippers of Baal. This displeased God, 
who sent Elijah to tell the king that 
there was going to be a great famine in 
the land, and this is what is meant in 
v. I, where we read " there shall not be 
dew nor rain." When there is " no 
dew nor rain " for a long time, the 
ground gets so dry that nothing will 
grow. The' harvests fail, and there is 
a famine. The people have nothing to 
eat. This is a dreadful thing. 

Elijah says to the king, " there shall 



THE FATHER'S CARE. 



5S 



not be dew nor rain these years, but 
according to my word!' This probably 
meant that no rain should come till he, 
the prophet, prayed for it. This was 
wonderful. It was just as if God had 
given Elijah power to lock up the 
windows of heaven, and put the key 
in his pocket, with the understanding 
that there should be no rain till he 
chose to take out that kev and unlock 
the windows of heaven again. There 
would be no rain till he should pray 
for it. And so after the famine had 
lasted more than three years, the rain 
did not come till Elijah had prayed for 
it. (See I Kings xviii. 41-46.) 

The effect which Elijah's message 
had on the king was to make him very- 
angry. God knew the danger his 
prophet would be in, and so he found 
for him a safe hiding-place by the 
brook Cherith. Ahab diligently sought 
to find him, but that which God hides 
no one can find. 

"The brook Cherith," though well 
known, was a good hiding-place, and it 
was on the way from Jerusalem to Jeri- 
cho, before reaching the Jordan, and in 
the wilderness of Judea. It is a very wild, 
desolate region. In travelling through 
it, I remember coming to the edge of a 
precipice. Below was a dark valley or 
gorge, several hundred feet deep. At 
the bottom was a little brook of water. 
This was "the brook Cherith." On the 
opposite side, the mountains rose up 
hundreds of feet high, like a wall. It 



was one of the wildest, gloomiest 
places I ever saw. And this was God's 
hiding-place for his faithful servant. 
In all his searching, king Ahab never 
thought of looking for Elijah here. 
When he was thirsty, " he drank of the 
brook," and " the ravens," obedient to 
God's command, " brought him bread 
and flesh in the morning, and bread and 
flesh in the evening." The ravens 
themselves eat flesh, and they seldom 
get as much as they want. How 
strange it must have seemed to see 
these hungry birds bring the flesh they 
would gladly themselves have eaten, 
and lay it down by the prophet ! What 
a lesson of obedience these birds teach 
us ! Let us try to obey God's com- 
mands in the same way. 

When the brook was about to dry 
up, God told Elijah to leave it and go 
to Zarephath, where he had " command- 
ed a widow woman to sustain him." 
Zarephath was a town on the shore of 
the Mediterranean, near the famous 
city of Sidon. In the New Testament 
it is called Sarepta (Luke iv. 26). It 
now goes by the name of Surafend. It 
is only a small village, though near it 
are the ruins of a place of some size. 
Amone these ruins are the remains of 
a chapel, built by the Crusaders, on the 
spot where it was said the widow's 
house had formerly stood. 

When Elijah reached it, he found a 
woman gathering sticks. God told 
him this was the person he was to stay 



56 



THE FATHER'S CARE. 



with. Elijah asked her for a drink of 
water and a piece of bread. She said 
she had no bread, but only a little meal 
and a small quantity of olive oil, out of 
which she was going to make the last 
cake for herself and her son, and when 
they had eaten that, she expected, as 
she did not know where or how they 
could obtain food, they would die. 

But Elijah told her to go and make 
him only a little cake first, and then 
bring it to him, and if she did so, 
God would cause the meal and the oil 
to increase in such a way that they 
would be able to live on it as long as 
the famine lasted. She believed the 
prophet. She obeyed God. She used 
all the meal and the oil to make some 
bread for Elijah. And when she went 
back to make some bread for herself 
and her son, there were meal and oil 
enough for them. And so it was the 
next day, and the day after, and as long 
as the famine lasted. That happy fam- 
ily lived by miracle every day. We 
know not how long Elijah lived in this 
widow's family. But suppose it was 
eighteen months, or a year and a half, 
this would make five hundred and 
forty-seven days. And so we see that 
God performed five hundred and forty- 
seven miracles to reward this good 
woman for taking care of his servant 
Elijah ! 



How easily God can protect his peo- 
ple when they are in danger, and provide 
for then i when they are in want! 

How well God rezvards those who 
serve him / 



"Light is sown for the righteous" 
Sometimes a light surprises 

The Christian while he sings; 
It is the Lord who rises 

With healing in his wings. 
When comforts are declining, 

He grants the soul again 
A season of clear shining, 

To cheer it after rain. 

In holy contemplation, 

We sweetly then pursue 
The theme of God's salvation, 

And find it ever new. 
Set free from present sorrow, 

We cheerfully can say, 
Even let the unknown to-morrow 

Bring with it what it may. 

It can bring with it nothing, 

But he will bear us through; 
Who gives the lilies clothing, 

Will clothe his people too. 
Beneath the spreading heavens, 

No creature but is fed ; 
And he who feeds the ravens 

Will give his children bread. 

Though vine nor fig tree neither 

Their wonted fruit shall bear, 
Though all the field should wither, 

Nor flocks nor herds be there; 
Yet, God the same abiding, 

His praise shall tune my voice; 
For, while in him confiding, 

I cannot but rejoice. 



ELIJAH AND THE FALSE PROPHETS. 



IN our picture we have a view of one 
of the most interesting events men- 
tioned in the Old Testament. Is- 
rael had become a nation of idolators. 
The public worship of the true God was 
given up. The king, and the princes, 
and the people generally, had become 
worshippers of Baal. God wished 
the people to return to him. He sent 
the prophet Elijah to do this great 
work. In the 1 8th chap, of 1st Kings, 
we have an account of the way in which 
this was done. Elijah, who was saluted 
by Ahab the wicked king with the 
words, "Art thou he that troubieth Is- 
rael ? " answered : " I have not troubled 
Israel ; but thou, and thy father's house, 
in that ye have forsaken the command- 
ments of the Lord, and thou hast fol- 
lowed Baalim," and tells the king to call 
together the people and the prophets 
of Baal. Accordingly the king pro- 
claims throughout his kingdom that a 
meeting of the prophets of Baal, four 
hundred and fifty in number, was to be 
held on Carmel. They come, and 
there the prophet put to the people 
this testing question : " How long halt 
ye between two opinions? if the Lord 
be God, follow him : but if Baal, then 
follow him." Alas ! the people made no 
answer, whereupon Elijah proposes a 
(58) 



plan to decide whether Baal or Jehovah 
was the true God. This was a great 
contest. Let us look at the incidents of 
the contest. 

The place of meeting was at Mount 
Carmel. The name Carmel is applied 
to a range of mountains on the northern 
part of the great plain of Esdraelon. 
This range on the western side ends in a 
steep, rocky headland, that runs out into 
the Mediterranean Sea. In its highest 
part it is about seventeen hundred feet 
high. There are level plains and 
gentle slopes along the sides o( this 
mount. The level plains would do 
nicely to build the altars on, and the 
sloping sides would accommodate the 
great crowd of people that met on this 
occasion. And then there was a fa- 
mous spring or fountain at the side of 
Carmel, which would supply all the 
water that Elijah needed on this occa- 
sion (see vs. 33, 34). And so we see 
that this was a very suitable place for 
such a meeting". 

The parties who met here were the 
king and the people of Israel. And 
when Elijah announced his plan, all 
the people answered, and said, " It is 
well spoken," so they came rather to 
look on than to act. They were to be 
like the jury when there is a trial in 



ELIJAH AND THE FALSE PROPHETS. 



59 



court. The parties who were to decide 
this contest were the prophets. There 
were two sets of these. In one were 
the prophets of Baal. These made on 
the one hand a company of four hun- 
dred and fifty men. They were to take 
the part of the idol Baal. On the other 
side Elijah stood, alone. It seems that he 
was the only one of the Lord's prophets 
left (v. 22). Surely they needed a re- 
vival of religion in Israel then. Yonder 
we may see the great crowd of 
people gathered on the side of Car- 
mel. An open space is left in the 
midst of the crowd. In the mid- 
dle of this space the army of Baal's 
prophets are gathered. Opposite is 
one solitary man, Elijah, the prophet 
of the Lord. 

We see what the contest was in vs. 
21-24. Elijah wished to settle the 
question whether Baal or Jehovah was 
the true God. The plan he proposed 
was, that Baal's prophets on the one 
hand and he on the other should each 
build an altar, and put the wood and 
the offering upon it, and then that they 
should each in turn call on their God 
to send down fire from heaven upon 
the altar, and that whoever of them 
answered these prayers by sending 
down fire on the altar, they would all 
agree to acknowledge as the one true 
God. They agreed to this plan, and 
then they began to decide this contest. 

Accordingly the prophets of Baal 
built their altar, put the wood on it, and 



then the offering. Then they began to 
call on Baal to hear them, and send 
fire on the altar. But no fire came. 
Then they prayed louder. They got 
very much excited. They cut them- 
selves with knives and lancets till the 
blood gushed out. They danced and 
leaped around their altar till they were 
tired. Elijah mocked and made fun of 
them (v. 27). He said to them : " Cry 
aloud : for he is a god ; either he is 
talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a 
journey, or peradventure he sleepeth 
and must be awaked." Then they 
called louder than ever, and kept it up 
till three o'clock in the afternoon. At 
last they stopped ; but no voice an- 
swered them, and no fire appeared. 

Then Elijah's turn came. He built 

up the old altar of Israel's God, which 

J had fallen down. He put the wood on 

j it and the offering. And then to prove 

j that he was not trying to cheat, by 

j putting some fire secretly under the 

I wood, he made them pour twelve 

j barrels of water on the altar, till every- 

i thin": was drenched, and a trench round 

i the altar was filled with water. Then 

he offered one short, solemn prayer to 

the God of Israel. And while he was 

praying, the fire came down from 

heaven. It burnt up the wet wood 

and the offering that was on it, and 

never stopped till it had licked up all 

the water in the trench (v. 38). 

The result of the contest was unmis- 
takable. The people were convinced. 



6o 



ELIJAH AND THE FALSE PROPHETS. 



They fell on their faces and openly ac- 
knowledged that the Lord Jehovah was 
the true God (v. 39). They said : " The 
Lord, he is the God ; the Lord he is 
the God." The proof was too plain 
to be resisted. But there was another 
result : Baal 's prophets were slain (v. 
40). The people " took them : and 
Elijah brought them down to the 
brook Kishon, and slew them there." 
This was right. It was according to 
the law which God had given. See 
Deut. xvii. 1-7. 

Thereupon Elijah sent word to Ahab 
to hasten home because the rain was 
coming, and then he went up to the top 
of Carmel to pray for it. There are 
two important lessons that we learn 
from the 41st to the 46th verses. 

One of these is about prayer. Elijah 
prayed for rain. And there are three 
things to notice. One is his confidence 
in prayer. He told Ahab the rain was 
coming before there was any sign of it. 
But God had said that rain would come 
when he prayed for it, and so he was 
sure it would come. Another thing 
is his patience in prayer. When the ser- 
vant came from looking towards the 
sea for the clouds which would bring 
rain, and said there was no cloud to be 
seen, he told him to go again and again. 
The third thing is his perseverance in 
prayer. When the servant came back 
the sixth time and said, " There is 



! nothing," he still said, " Go again." 
1 Confidence, patience \ and perseverance 
\ are what we need in prayer. 
i The other lesson is about the respect 
J ive owe to our rulers. Ahab was a bad 

man. He had caused Elijah a great 
; deal of trouble, and had even sought 
1 to kill him. Still he was the king, and 

Elijah, showed his respect for him by 
■: sending him word about the rain, and 
I then by running before his chariot 

all the way to Jezreel. 



"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy 
name give glory." 

" Not in anything we do, 
Thought that's pure, or word that's true, 
Saviour, would we put our trust : 
Frail as vapor, vile as dust, 
All that flatters we disown : 
Righteousness is thine alone. 

Though we underwent for Thee 
Perils of the land and sea, 
Though we cast our lives away, 
Dying for Thee day by day, 
Boast we never of our own : 
Grace and strength are Thine alone. 

Native cumberers of the ground, 
All our fruit from Thee is found : 
Grafted in Thine olive, Lord, 
New-begotten by Thy word, 
All we have is Thine alone : 
Life and power are not our own. 

And when Thy returning voice 
Calls Thy faithful to rejoice, 
When the countless throng to Thee 
Cast their crown of victory, 
We will sing before the throne, 
Thine the glory, not our own ! " 



THE WONDERFUL JAR OF OIL. 



HERE is a picture of a very interest- 
ing story told us in 2 Kings iv. 
1-7. It took place in the time 
of the prophet Elisha. 

It seems that one of the good men 
belonging to the school of the prophets 
died, leaving his family, consisting of a 
widow and two sons, in debt. Having 
no money, or property of any kind, the 
person to whom the debt was due had 
the power to take the boys away from 
their mother and sell them as slaves. 
He was going to do this. The poor 
mother was very much distressed at the 
thought of losing her dear boys. Not 
knowing what else to do, she went to 
the prophet Elisha, and told him all her 
sorrow. He asked her what she had in 
her house. She said she had nothing 
but one jar full of oil. 

This oil was made from the fruit of 
the olive tree. In old times, when the 
olive berries were ripe, they used to 
gather them, and put them in tubs or 
vats, and press out the oil by treading 
on them. This is what is meant in 
Micah vi. 15, when it says, " Thou shalt 
tread the olives, but thou shalt not 
anoint thee' with oil." But now they 
use presses for making the oil. This 
oil was used in the temple for lights. 
The people in that country were accus- 
(62) 



tomed to anoint themselves with this 
oil. It was also used as an article of 
food instead of butter. Olive oil there- 
fore was very valuable. 

Elisha told the poor woman to go 
home, and borrow from her neighbors 
a great number of empty oil jars, as 
many as she could get, and take them 
into her house, and shut the door, and 
pour oil out from the jar she had into 
all those empty jars, for there would be 
enough to fill them all. Then she was 
to sell the oil, and take as much money 
as she needed to pay the debt which 
she owed, and the rest she might use to 
support herself and her children. 

She went off at once, and did what 
the prophet had told her to do. And 
this is what we see represented in our 
picture. Here the poor widow and her 
two sons are by themselves in their 
house. There are the oil jars on the 
floor of the house. There are six stand- 
ing on the floor. The oldest son has 
one in his arms, and there is another 
standing on the window sill. These 
only make eight in all. I dare say there 
were a great many more. As soon as 
they get them ready the widow begins 
to pour out the oil into the empty jars. 
She fills first one, and then another, and 
another. As soon as a jar is filled, her 



THE H'OXDERFL'L JAR OF OIL. 



63 



son sets it aside, and brings another 
empty jar. The oil in that one jar keeps 
flowing on, just as if it had been a foun- 
tain. It never stops till her son says, 
11 Mother, this is the last jar." As soon 
as that is filled the oil ceases to flow. 
How wonderful this was ! In the pic- 
ture we see the younger son clasping 
his hands, and looking on in astonish- 
ment. And well he might do so; for 
indeed that was a wonderful jar of oil. 

Now see the great kindness of God to 
his people when in trouble. 

God says to us in the Bible, " Call 
upon me in the day of trouble : I will 



deliver thee." Ps. 1. 1; 



Th 



is poor 



widow, in her day of trouble, when she 
came to the prophet, was calling on 
God. And while God is kind to all his 
people in their troubles, he is particu- 
larly so to widows and fatherless chil- 
dren. There are many promises in the 
Bible that are written especially for 
them. The\- are often very helpless, 
and unable to do much for themselves, 
and this is the reason why God is so 
thoughtful about them. This story is a 
good illustration of all those prom- 
ises. 

Think hozu many ways God has for 
helping his people. 

When the Israelites were travelling 
through the wilderness, God fed them 



with manna from heaven for forty years. 
When the water was all gone, and they 
were suffering from thirst, God made 
the water gush from the hard rock. 
When Elijah was hiding himself from 
king Ahab, who wanted to kill him, in 
the time of the famine, God sent the 
ravens for about eighteen months to 
bring him bread and meat every day. 
But none of these things were more 
wonderful than what this story tells us. 
How surprising the power of God must 
be that could make one jar of oil fill all 
those empty jars ! The God who could 
do this, can do anything. This shows 
us how true it is, that "with God nothing 
shall be impossible '." 

And now see the importance of doing 
at once, what God tells us to do. 

This woman might have said, " O, 
what is the use of trying to fill so many 
empty jars, with the oil in one jar?'* 
This is what unbelief would have led 
her to say. But she did not give way 
to unbelief. She had faith in God. 
She believed his prophet. She obeyed, 
at once, what he told her to do. And 
what a reward she got for her faith and 
obedience ! Let us try to imitate her 
example. Let us believe all that God 
says. Let us pray for grace to do at 
once all that God tells us to do, and 
then God will bless us. 




/7/7Z77. 






I -^ 






GREED AND ITS GAINS. 



IN 2 Kings v. 20-27 we read how 
Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, was 
disappointed because his master 
would not receive the money that 
Naaman, the Syrian general, offered for 
the curing of his leprosy. Gehazi deter- 
mined to go after the Syrian captain, 
and get him to give him some money. 
So he made up a story, and ran after 
Naaman, and asked him for a talent of 
silver (about fifteen hundred dollars), 
which he said his master wanted for 
the use of some poor theological 
students. Gehazi said, " My master 
hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now 
there be come to me from mount 
Ephraim two young men of the sons 
of the prophets : give them, I pray thee, 
a talent of silver, and two changes of 
garments." Naaman freely gave him 
twice as much as he asked for, and sent 
two of his servants to carry it for 
Gehazi. 

As soon as he reached home he 
stowed the money away, and went in to 
his master. Elisha asked him where 
he had been. He said he not been 
anywhere. Then Elisha told him all 
about the sin he had been committine. 
He sharply reproved him for his wick- 
edness, and told him that as a punish- 
ment for his sin, the leprosy of which 



Naaman hacl just been cured should 
come upon him, and cleave to his chil- 
dren forever. In a moment he be- 
came a leper, and lost his health and 
his office together. This is what we 
are told. 

Now let us see what we arc taugJit. 

Gehazi thought that what he had 
been doing was a secret. And we 
often hear people talk about secret sins. 
But no sin is secret. How can it be, 
when we know that " the eyes of the 
Lord arc in every place, beholding the 
evil and the good " (Prov. xv. 3). The 
Bible tells us of the only way in which 
sin can be hidden ; this is by repenting 
of it and getting it pardoned. This is 
what David means when he says, 
" Blessed is he whose transgression is 
forgiven, whose sin is covered (Ps. 
xxxii. 1). Then it is "blotted out as a 
thick cloud " (Is. xliv. 22). God casts it 
"behind his back " (Is. xxxviii. 17). He 
removes it " as far as the east is from 
the west" (Ps. cni. 12). He casts it 
" into the depths of the sea" (Micah 
vii. 19). And though it " be sought for, 
it shall not be found " (Jer. 1. 20). 
This is the only way in which sin can 
possibly be hid. 

Sins, like grapes, grow in bunches. 
Gehazi broke four of the ten command- 

(65; 



66 



GREED AND ITS GAJXS. 



ments all at once. The tenth command- 
ment says, " Thou shalt not covet ; " he 
broke that. He loved money — he was 
greedy of gain, and he realized when 
it was too late that ." it was the root of 
all evil," for he also broke the third 
commandment which is, " Thou shalt 
not take the name of the Lord thy God 
in vain." He broke this when he said, 
"AytheLoRDliveth.Iwill run after him." 
He broke the ninth commandment 
which says, " Thou shalt not bear false 
witness against thy neighbor," when he 
told Naaman that his master had sent 
him to ask for money ; and he broke the 
eighth commandment which is, "Thou 
shalt not steal," when he took Naaman's 
money by falsehood. And then he 
told a downright he to his master when 
he said he had not been anywhere. 
What a bunch of sins grew out of this 
one act of Gehazi's life ! See how this 
proves the apostle Paul's statement, 
" for the love of money is a root of all 
kinds of evil : which some reaching 
after have been led astray from the 
faith, and have pierced themselves 
through with many sorrows." (i Tim. 
vi. 10, revised version.) 

No doubt Gehazi thought when he 
got this money from Naaman, he had 
done a very profitable piece of business; 
but he soon realized it was the most 
expensive transaction he had ever en- 



and what he lost. He gained about 
three thousand dollars. He lost his 
health ; he lost his office ; he lost his 
character, and he left to his children as 
their inheritance that dreadful disease, 
the leprosy. What an illustration we 
have here of Solomon's saying, " The 
way of transgressors is hard/" (Prov. 
xiii. 15). What untold miseries he had 
brought on himself and his children by 
his greed ! 



gaged m. 



Look at what he gained 



"Eor to vie to live is Christ" 

Object of my first desire, 

Jesus, crucified for me ! 
All to happiness aspire, 

Only to he found in Thee : 
Thee to please, and Thee to know, 
Constitute our bliss below ; 
Thee to see, and Thee to love, 
Constitute our bliss above. 

Lord ! it is not life to live, 

If Thy presence Thou deny; 
Lord ! if Thou Thy presence give, 

'Tis no longer death to die. 
.Source and Giver of repose, 
Singly from Thy smile it flows : 
Peace and happiness are Thine, 
Mine they are, if Thou art mine. 

Whilst I feel Thy love to me, 
Every object teems with joy ; 

Here, O may I walk with Thee, 
Then into Thy presence die ! 

Let me but thyself possess, 

Total sum of happiness ! 

Real bliss I then shall prove, 

Heaven below and heaven above. 



THE UNSEEN ARMY. 



IT is twilight, and the sun is begin- 
ning to rise in the East. The four 
men you see are four famishing 
lepers, who are just making up their 
minds to leave the besieged city of Sa- 
maria and go over into the Syrian 
camp. Death from famine is in the 
city, and death from the enemy may be 
before them. And so, hardly hoping 
to be spared, they resolve to trust 
themselves to the mercy of the foe. 
In doing this they found that a most 
remarkable deliverance had been 
wrought, and if you get your Bibles 
and read 2 Kings vii. i-ii,you will 
read about it, and then you will think 
of five things which marked it. 

// was a needed deliverance. The 
regular supply of food in Samaria had 
all been used. I suppose there was 
plenty of water in the city, but the peo- 
ple depended on the country around 
for food. But the Syrian army had 
been besieging the city for a long time. 
Its gates had been kept closed and 
barred. The farmers had not been 
able to bring in any provisions. There 
was nothing in the market to be bought. 
A great famine was prevailing, and no 
doubt many people were dying from 
hunger. They were obliged to eat 
their horses and asses, and even this 
(68) 



kind of tood was so scarce, that the 
head of a jackass would sell for eighty 
pieces of silver, which was probably 
worth about forty dollars of our money. 
And worse than this, people were so 
ravenously hungry, that even mothers 
were known to eat their own children. 
2 Kings vi. 25-30. What dreadful 
suffering there must have been in Sa- 
maria, and how needful was the deliv- 
erance ! 

It was an unexpected deliverance. 
The king of Syria had a large and 
powerful army, with plenty of provis- 
ions and supplies, besieging Samaria. 
The king of Israel had only a handful 
of soldiers. He was not able to go out 
and fight the Syrians. He could not 
drive them away. He had no allies 
outside the city to come and help him. 
There was no prospect of any assist- 
ance coming to him. Every day pro- 
visions were getting scarcer. It seemed 
impossible for the people of Samaria to 
hold out much longer. There was no 
prospect before them but that of soon 
being compelled to open their gates, 
and surrender themselves to the Syrians. 
Neither the king of Israel, nor any of 
his people, could tell how it was possi- 

I ble for deliverance to come to them. 

! There was no prospect at all of any 



THE UNSEEN ARMY. 



o< 



relief. I suppose nobody in the city- 
had any hope of it. Deliverance indeed 
came, but how unexpected I 

Yet it was a promised deliverance. In 
the darkest hour, light came. Elisha 
the prophet was in Samaria all this time. 
And one day when they were all ready 
to give up in despair, God told him to 
send word to the king, that deliverance 
would come by the next day. He said 
that within twenty-four hours, provis- 
ions should be so plenty that a measure 
of fine flour would be sold for a shekel, 
and two measures of barley for a 
shekel. The measure here spoken of, 
was about a quart, and the price of it, 
a shekel, was about fifty cents of our 
money. This was God's promise. It 
seemed very surprising. Elisha did 
not tell how this deliverance was to 
come. Probably he did not know, any 
more than the rest of the people. It 
seems as if God only gave him the 
promise without saying anything about 
the way in which it should be fulfilled. 
Yet Elisha believed it. Whether the 
king did so, we are not told. But it 
seemed so strange, so impossible, that 
some of the people could not believe it. 
One of the king's officers said that " if 
the Lord would make windows in 
heaven, might this thing be." He 
would not believe God's promise. To 
punish him for his unbelief, the prophet 
told him he should see the promised 
plenty come, but should not eat of it. 

// was a wonderful deliverance. 



God did not make a window in heaven 
and rain down food upon Samaria. He 
did not bring an army of men to fight 
against the Syrians. He simply fright- 
ened them so that they all ran away. 
And the way in which he did this, was 
very surprising. He caused them to 
hear a great noise. This sounded like 
the noise that horses, and chariots, and 
a great army would make when they 
were rushing on to battle. The Syrians 
thought that the king of Israel had 
sent to Egypt, and hired a large army 
to come and fight against them. It 
sounded as if this army was rushing 
down upon them. They were so 
frightened by the dreadful noise they 
heard, that they left their tents and 
everything behind them, and ran for 
their lives. I suppose God made the 
noise continue to follow them, so that 
they had no chance to get over their 
fright, and without waiting to see their 
supposed enemies, they threw even 
their arms away, and thought of 
nothing but to make their escape. 

And then the poor starving lepers, 
that we see in the picture, without 
knowing what God had done, driven on 
by hunger, went over to the camp of 
the Syrians in the hope of getting 
something to eat. We may judge of 
their surprise when they entered their 
enemy's camp and found nobody there. 
What a good time they must have had 
in helping themselves to everything 
they wanted ! And then it occurred 



7o 



THE UNSEEN ARMY. 



to them how selfish they were in not 
making known the flight of the enemy. 

They therefore went back to the city 
and told the king. And as the news 
spread, what a rush there was of the 
starving people ! The plenty which 
God had promised had come according 
to his word. The unbelieving officer 
of the king saw it with his eyes, but 
was trampled to death by the eager 
crowds, and never tasted of the abund- 
ance which came so suddenly. What 
a wonderful deliverance! 

And what an effectual deliverance. 
Two things were necessary to make it 
so. One of these was, the removal of 
the Syrian army. This was done com- 
pletely. If the earth had opened and 
swallowed them up, they could not 
have been more completely taken out 
of the way of the Israelites. Not one 
of them was left. The king, his officers, 
and men were taken all away together. 
This was one thing that made the de- 
liverance complete. 

The other was, an abundant supply 
of provisions for the people of that 
starving city. And this God secured 
for them. The king of Syria was very 
rich. His country was very fertile. His 
army was furnished with an abundance 
of everything. And it was this abund- 



ance which made the deliverance so 
effectual. 

Let us learn how easily God can help 
his people ! He has the hearts of all 
men in his hands, and he can do just 
whet he pleases with them. He can play 
on them as easily as we play on an in- 
strument. He can fill them with joy or 
sorrow, with courage or with fear, as he 
chooses. " Nothing is too hard for the 
Lord." And, learn further, Jwiv confi- 
dently we should trust God ! He can 
always deliver, and help, and save, and 
bless those who serve him. Now then 
let us always believe him and love 
him. 



Confidence. 

In Thee I trust, on Thee I rest, 
O Saviour dear, Redeemer blest ! 
No earthly friend, no brother knows 
My weariness, my wants, my woes. 

On Thee I call, 

Who knowest all. 
O Saviour dear, Redeemer blest, 
In Thee I trust, on Thee I rest. 

Thy power, Thy love, Thy faithfulness, 
With lip and life I long to bless. 
Thy faithfulness shall be my tower, 
My sun Thy love, my shield Thy power, 

In darkest night, 

In fiercest fight. 
With lip and life I long to bless 
Thy power, Thy love, Thy faithfulness. 



THE DEATH OF ELISHA. 



THE great prophet Elisha is now on j 
his death-bed. For over sixty ■ 
years he has been a prophet, and 
he must now be, at least eighty years 
old. He is visited by Joash, the grand- 
son of Jehu, and the king of Israel, 
and in 2 Kings xiii. 14-21 we have an 
account of what took place between 
them, and which will explain the pic- 
ture. In what we there read we have 
an illustration of usefulness in life, of 
usefulness in death, and of usefulness 
after death. 

USEFULNESS IN LIFE. 

When king Joash came in to see 
Elisha, he wept over him, and said, 
" 0, my father, my father, the chariot 
of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! " 
These are the very words which Elisha 
himself had used many years before, 
when Elijah was taken up to heaven 
(2 Kings ii. 12). By using these words, 
the king meant to show how useful the 
life of Elisha had been to the nation of 
Israel. He had been a protection and 
blessing to all the people. By his 
miracles, by his teachings, and by his 
prayers, he had been doing them good 
all the time. And so if we are loving j 
and serving God, though we may not ! 
be prophets, or ministers, or persons ■ 
occupying public places, still by our j 
(72) 



example, by our labors, and by our 
prayers, we may be doing good to all 
about us. However young we may be, 
and however humble our position, we 
may make our lives useful,, as Elisha did. 

USEFULNESS IN DEATH. 

Elisha was useful in his death by 
teaching the king some very important 
lessons. He taught him a lesson of 
trust in God. The king felt as if all 
blessing and protection would be taken 
away from Israel when Elisha died. 
So the prophet told him to take his 
bow and open the window — not a glass 
window like ours, but an opening with 
a shutter — and shoot an arrow towards 
the east. That was the direction in 
which the Syrians lived, who were the 
enemies of Israel. Elisha called this 
"the arrow of the Lord's deliverance" 
(v. 17). By this he meant that though 
prophets must die, yet God lived, and 
he could give deliverance to Israel. 
Then he told him to take the arrows 
and smite the ground. He did so. 
And by this Elisha taught him a lesson 
of his own duty : that he was to be brave, 
and fight the battles of the people, and 
that God would give him victory over 
his enemies. And in teaching the king 
these lessons, we see how useful Elisha 
was in his death. 



THE DEATH OE EL IS HA. 



73 



And so if we love and serve God, 
we may be useful in death as well as in 
life. We shall not be afraid to die 
when the time comes. And our ex- 
ample may be useful to others, in lead- 
ing them to love and serve him too. 

And then we have an illustration of 

USEFULNESS AFTER DEATH. 

We have no account of Elisha's 
funeral. Josephus, the Jewish historian, 
says it was a grand funeral. We know 
not where he was buried. It may have 
been in Samaria, or it may have been 
near Jericho. The Jews did not bury 
their dead as we do, in openings dug in 
the ground. They used caves in the 
rocks, and put a stone over the mouth 
of the cave. 

When Elisha had been buried some 
time, one day a funeral was going by 
his tomb. The friends of a dead man 
were carrying him to his grave. Just 
as they reached this spot, they saw a 
band of men coming as if they were 
robbers. Alarmed at this, they feared 
to go any further. Then opening 
Elisha's tomb, they put the dead body 
of their friend there. The Jews did not 
use coffins as we do. They simply 
wrapped their dead in grave-clothes. 
This dead body was laid down close by 
the remains of Elisha. As soon as it 



touched the bones of the prophet, there 
was such strange power in them that 
the dead man was restored to life, and 
walked back to his home in health. 
This was usefulness after death indeed ! 
(v. 21). 

We cannot expect that any such 
power will be found in our bones when 
we are dead. But if we are faithful in 
serving God while we live, the influence 
of our examples, the good we have 
done, and the lessons we have taught, 
may lead some to love and serve God 
when we have passed away. And then 
it may be said of us, that " we being 
dead yet speak." 



The Celestial Country. 

Brief life is here our portion, 
Brief sorrow, short-lived enre , 

The life that knows no ending — 
The tearless life, is there. 

And now we fight the battle, 

But then shall wear the crown, 
Of full and everlasting 

And passionless renown : 
And now we watch and struggle, 

And now we live in hope, 
And Sion, in her anguish, 

With Babylon must cope; 
But He whom now we trust in 

Shall then be seen and known, 
And they that know and see him, 

Shall have him for their own. 




■—»»■--— 



REPAIRING THE HOUSE OF GOD. 



WE have in this picture a good 
illustration of the mode in which 
the collection was taken up for 
the repairs of the temple. But why 
was this required, and how was it 
brought about? Read 2 Chron. xxiv. 
4-13. Previous to this time the throne 
of Judah had been occupied by three 
bad rulers. The first of these was Jeho- 
ram, son of the good king Jehoshaphat. 
His father Jehoshaphat made a great 
mistake when he allowed his son to 
marry Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel, 
who was the wife of Ahab, king of 
Israel. This Jezebel was the wickedest 
woman of whom we read in the Bible. 
Her daughter, Athaliah, was just like 
her mother. She was a worshipper of 
Baal herself, and led her husband to 
become one also. Jehoram had noth- 
ing but trouble all through his reign, 
and died of a horrible disease while he 
was quite young. 

On the death of Jehoram, Ahaziah, 
one of his sons, was made king. After 
he had reigned about a year he was 
killed. Then that wicked woman, 
Athaliah, made up her mind that she 
would take the throne and be the queen 
of Israel. To secure this object she 
ordered Ahaziah's sons, her own grand- 
children, to be put to death before her 



eyes. What a wicked woman she was! 
And then she reigned as queen. But 
it happened that these boys had an 
aunt who was a very good woman. 
Her name was Jehoshabeath. She was 
married to a good priest, whose name 
was Jehoiada. This good aunt took 
the youngest of her nephews, a son of 
the dead king. He was only a baby 
then. His name was Joash. She hid 
him in one of the rooms of the temple, 
so that his wicked grandmother could 
not kill him. Then she nursed him, 
and took care of him till he was seven 
years old. Then Jehoiada the priest 
had the young Joash made king, and 
caused the wicked Athaliah to be put 
to death. This boy king was too 
young to attend to the duties of the 
kingdom himself. But his good uncle 
stood by, and helped him till he be- 
came of age. And so Joash became 
king. 

When he ascended the throne he 
found the temple in disrepair. This 
was the same temple that Solomon had 
built. It was now a hundred and thirty 
years old. During the last three reigns 
it had been entirely neglected. It had 
been robbed, as we see in verse 7. 
The furniture in it, and the beautiful 
ornaments belonging to it, had been 

(75) 



7 6 



REPAIRING THE HOUSE OF GOD. 



taken away and used in the temple of 
the idol Baal. We know how soon a 
house or building of any kind will go 
to decay and ruin when it is not 
occupied, and nothing is done to keep 
it in good order. And so it was with 
the temple. It must have been a sad 
sight to the pious Jews to see their 
beautiful temple shut up and neglected, 
with no sacrifices offered on the altar, 
and no prayers or praises presented to 
God there. Well, the good work that 
Joash did was that he repaired the 
temple. 

But how did Joash make these re- 
pairs ? He tried one way, spoken of in 
verse 5. This was to send the priests 
out among the people, to make col- 
lections for the repairs of the temple. 
Moses had commanded every person 
among the Jews to give half a shekel for 
the purpose of keeping up the service 
of the tabernacle. This was about 
twenty-five cents of our money. We 
find this commandment in Exodus xxx. 
12-16. If each person among them had 
given this sum, they would soon have 
had money enough. But the priests 
and Levites neglected to do this 
(verse 5). 

Then the king tried another plan. 
He had a large chest or collection box 
made, with a hole in the top of it. 



This was placed near the altar, at the 
entrance of the temple (verse 8). 
When this was done, the king sent out 
an order for the people to bring their 
collections and put them in this box 
(verse 9). We read in verse 1 1 how 
the princes and the people brought 
their offerings and put them in this 
chest. This is what the picture repre- 
sents them doing. There the king is 
seen standing by the chest. The 
people are casting in their offerings, 
and in front of the chest we see the 
king's scribe or secretary writing down 
an account of the collection, so as to 
report to the king what the amount of 
it was. In this way they got as much 
money as they needed (verse 11). Then 
the masons and carpenters were set to 
work (verse 12), and soon the repairing 
of the temple was completed, and made 
fit for the people to worship in (verse 

13)- 

Let us remember that all we have in 

this world is given us by God, and 

that he expects us to make offerings 

of whatever we have, to help support 

the church in which we worship him. 

And he blesses those who give to his 

cause. We have his command and 

promise in these words : " Give, and it 

shall be given unto you." (Luke vi. 

38-) 



THE SCRIPTURES FOUND AND SEARCHED. 



IN this picture we see Josiah, who was 
the last good king of Judah before 
the nation was carried captive to 
Babylon, sitting on his throne. A very 
interesting event happened in his reign ; 
it was the finding of a copy of the best 
of all books. You will find the circum- 
stances told in 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14-22. 

THE BOOK LOST. 

What book ? The Scriptures — the 
word of God — or that portion of the 
Bible which had then been written. In 
verse 15 it is called "the book of the 
law," which is supposed to have been 
what we call the Pentateuch, or the 
first five books of Moses. In Deut. 
xxxi. 26, we are told that Moses put a 
copy of " this book of the law " in the 
ark of the covenant, which was the 
most sacred place among the Jews. It 
was put there because God wished it to 
be kept safely, and it was more likely to 
be safe there than it would be anywhere 
else. And yet even there it had been 
lost. We know not how long it had 
been, since it was last seen. But when 
we remember that the temple had been 
closed, and the worship of God ne- 
glected, we cannot wonder that " the 
book of the law " should have been 
forgotten. What a sad state of things 
there must have been in Judah at that 
(78) 



time ! Think of there being only 
one copy of the Scriptures in all the 
country, and that one copy lost ! Sup- 
pose that our Bibles were all lost, and 
that throughout the whole country 
there was no house, no school, no 
church in which a single copy of the 
word of God could be found. What 
should we do ? How sad the state of 
things must have been in Judah, when 
the Book was lost ! 

But observe when it was found (v. 13). 
They had made a collection for repair- 
ing God's house. This was a right and 
proper thing to do. And it was while 
they were doing this that " the book of 
the law " was found. Solomon says, 
" To him that soweth righteousness 
shall be a sure reward" (Prov. xi. 18). 
Sowing righteousness means doing any- 
thing that is good or pleasing in God's 
sight. And having " a sure reward " 
means receiving a blessing, or getting 
good in return for what we have done. 
And the lesson that Solomon teaches us 
in the above passage is, that doing good 
is the best way of getting good. Now 
King Josiah was sowing righteousness, 
or doing good, when he undertook to 
raise money for repairing the temple of 
God. And it was while his servants 
were doing this good work for him that 



THE SCR/P JUKES FOUND AND SEA A' CI /ED. 



79 



they found " the book of the law." 
This was probably the very copy of 
the Scriptures that Moses — hundreds 
of years before — had written for the 
people to keep, that they might know 
what God wanted them to do. Look 
at our picture, and see how the king is 
stretching out his hands in surprise and 
wonder, as he sees this grand old copy 
of "the book of the law" unrolled 
before him ! We can imagine how we 
should feel, if we had never seen a copy 
of the Bible, and if, one day, a copy of 
this blessed book should be brought 
and opened before us, that we might 
for the first time in our lives read there- 
in, in our own language, " the won- 
derful works of God." The king felt 
that it was a solemn and blessed day to 
him, when he knew that the Book was 
found. 

What was the result ? It was read 
to the king (v. 18). When he heard it 
read, and saw what great sins all the 
people had committed by not doing 
what that law required, he was filled 
with contrition, and rent his clothes, 
which was the Jewish way of expressing 
sorrow (v. 19). Then he sent his ser- 
vants to Huldah, the prophetess, to in- 



quire what God had to say to them 
(vs. 21, 22). God sent word back that 
he was angry with the people, and 
would punish them for their sins ; but 
he comforted the good king by telling 
him that these troubles should not 
come while he was living (vs. 27, 28). 
This was the blessed result of finding 
the Book. 



" Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy 
name." 

The Spirit breathes upon the word, 
And brings the truth to sight ; 

Precepts and promises afford 
A sanctifying light. 

A glory gilds the sacred page 

Majestic like the sun ; 
It gives a light to every age, 

It gives but borrows none. 

The hand that gave it still supplies 
The gracious light and heat ; 

His truths upon the nations rise; 
They rise but never set. 

Let everlasting thanks be Thine, 

For such a bright display, 
As makes a world of darkness shine 

With beams of heavenly day. 

My soul rejoices to pursue 

The steps of him I love, 
Till glory hreaks upon my view 

In brighter worlds above. 



THE BUILDERS INTERRUPTED. 



HOW strangely God's people get 
scattered all over the earth ! In 
the short but interesting histor- 
ical book of Nehemiah we find an ac- 
count of a good, pious Jew who was 
the writer of the book, and who had 
wandered far awav from his own land, 
and had become a servant or cup- 
bearer to the king of Persia in his pal- 
ace at Susa, the capital city of Persia, 
which was a thousand miles distant 
from Jerusalem. One day he learned 
that Jerusalem was lying in ruins. It 
distressed him greatly, and he got per- 
mission from the king to go on a visit 
to that city. It was a long journey, 
taking about four months. Arriving 
at Jerusalem, he rested for three days. 
Then he went out by moonlight, with a 
few friends, to view the city as it lay in 
its ruins, and see not only what was 
required, but to determine how the 
work was to be done. 

The work to be done was the re- 
building of the walls of Jerusalem, 
and not only the walls, but the city 
itself, which had lain in ruins for more 
than a hundred years. A long time 
before, Cyrus published a decree allow- 
ing the Jews to return to their own land. 
Many of them did so ; but, strange as 
it appears, nothing had been done to- 



wards rebuilding the walls of the city, 
till Nehemiah came to do this work. 

How they began to build those walls 
we are told in the third chapter of 
Nehemiah. There we have an account 
of the names of the builders, and of 
the different parts of the walls on which 
they were placed. They were scattered 
all over the walls, so that when the 
walls rose from among the ruins, they 
would rise at the same time all around 
the city. And so the work was begun 
heartily and vigorously, and there was 
great joy among the builders at seeing 
the work go on encouragingly. But 
they were not permitted to go on long 
without interruption. 

The picture represents the attempt 
made to hinder the work. The man 
with a letter in his hand is Nehemiah. 
The man before him, holding up the 
finger of his right hand, is the servant 
of Sanballat, the leader of the enemies 
of the Jews. This is mentioned in 
chap. vi. 5, and in the verses following 
we are told what was in the letter. 

These enemies of the Jews tried to 
hinder the work in three ways. One 
was by ridicule. As children say, they 
" made fun " as to the quality of the 
work, and said: "If a fox should ^o up 
on the wall it would break it down" 

(81) 



82 



THE BUILDERS INTERRUPTED. 



(chap. iv. 3). It is hard to go on doing a 
thing when we are laughed at for doing 
it. Many a good work is hindered in 
this way. 

Another way in which they tried to 
do so was by discouragement. Some of 
the Jews said (v. 10) that "the strength 
of the bearers of burdens is decayed,- and 
there is much rubbish ; so that we are not 
able to build the wall!' It was hard 
enough for Nehemiah to have the out- 
side enemies putting hindrances in the 
way; but it was harder still to have 
some of his own people lazy and in- 
dolent in the work. 

And then another way in which those 
men tried to prevent the work was by 
fright. They said (v. 11) that they 
were going to come secretly and spring 
upon the Jews, and make them stop 
the work. 

But all these tricks were in vain, and 
so, in his distress, he prayed to God 
and sought, and the work was finished, 
as we read in the sixth chapter and 
fifteenth verse, in fifty and two days. 

There were four things about Nehe- 
miah that enabled him to be successful. 
And in any work we do for God, if we 
hope to do it well, we must have these 
same things. 

In chap. iv. 9 we read, u Nevertheless 
we made our prayer unto our God!\ And 
all through this book we find this good 
man lifting up his heart in prayer to 



God for his blessing. And so we must 
connect prayer with everything we try 
to do for God, if we wish to be suc- 
cessful. 

Nehemiah was careful as well as 
prayerful in his work. When he had 
prayed to be protected from his ene- 
mies, he did not feel that that was all 
he had to do. No, but he u set a zvatch 
against them day and night''' (v. 9). 
And Jesus united these two duties to- 
gether when he said, " Watch and pray, 
that ye enter not into temptation." 

And then he was faithful. He had 
travelled a thousand miles to do a par- 
ticular work. When he reached the 
end of his journey he began to do that 
thing, and nothing could turn him aside 
from doing it. Whether his enemies 
mocked or threatened, or whatever they 
did, it made no difference. He went 
on and did the thing he had come to do, 
and never stopped till it was finished. 

And then he was earnest. He never 
changed his clothes, except when ne- 
cessary to have them washed, until his 
work was done. 

In trying to save our souls, and in 
all that we do for Jesus, let us imitate 
the example of Nehemiah. Let us try 
by the help of God to be pray erf id, 
and careful, and faithful, and earnest, 
and then with his blessing upon our ef- 
forts we shall surely be successful in all 
we do. 



THE READING OF THE LAW. 



WHEN the Jews returned from 
their captivity, the first thing 
they tried to do was to get the 
walls of their city built, so that they 
could dwell in safety. As soon as this 
was done, they began to look after 
their spiritual interests. These had 
been very much neglected. In the 
picture we have a representation of 
what was done to bring about a revival 
of religion. A large congregation was 
gathered together in a public place 
near one of the principal gates of the 
city, where a pulpit or platform having 
been erected, they had a long and in- 
teresting Bible reading. See Neh. viii. 
1-8. 

The reader's name was Ezra. We 
see him in our picture. There he is, 
standing on the platform and reading 
out of the roll of the book, which a 
young man is holding up before him. 
Of course the books of those days 
were very different from ours. They 
were not printed on paper, but written 
on parchment and wound up in a roll. 

Ezra was a priest, one of the de- 
scendants of Aaron. He was also " a 
scribe." This means one who made it 
his chief business to study the word of 
God, and to aid in writing copies of it 
for the use of others. It was a very 
(S4) 



important and honorable office, and 
those who held it were much respected. 
Ezra was an officer under the king of 
Persia, as Nehemiah was ; and like him 
had obtained the king's permission to 
go to Jerusalem to help his countrymen 
there. There were three things that 
marked him. 

He was a devout reader. In v. 6 it 
is said, "And Ezra blessed the Lord, 
the great God." This means that he 
began his reading with giving praise to 
God. And this is what we should 
always do. Hence, says the apostle 
Paul, " Whether therefore ye eat, or 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 
the glory of God." 

He was a careful reader. In v. 8 we 
are told that the reading was " dis- 
tinctly " given. The words were plainly 
and slowly uttered, so that the people 
might not fail to take in what was read. 
Some persons mumble their words, or 
utter them so rapidly that one word 
runs into another, and it is hardly pos- 
sible to tell what is said. But this was 
not Ezra's way of reading. And in the 
fourth and seventh verses we have the 
names of his assistants. They number 
twenty-six in all. Ezra was well off 
for assistants. In v. 8 it says, " they 
read." It would seem from this as if 






THE READING OF THE LAW. 



85 



they took turns in reading. Or per- 
haps it means that some of them 
helped Ezra when he was tired, or that, 
when he stopped to rest, they explained 
to the people what he had been reading 
about. 

And then he was a cheerful reader. 
In the ninth and tenth verses of this 
chapter we find that when some of the 
people became sad and began to cry, 
Ezra spoke comforting words to them, 
and told them not to be sorrowful. Re- 
ligion is intended to make us happy 
and joyful. And when it is rightly re- 
ceived it will be sure to have this effect. 
And if Ezra was devout, and careful, 
and cheerful, it is very plain that he 
must have been a good reader. 

And now let us see what kind of 
hearers they were. Four things marked 
them. 

They were united hearers. In the 
first verse we are told that " all the 
people gathered themselves together as 
one man " to hear this reading. They 
did not have to be called many times 
and urged to come. They came of 
their own accord, and they all felt alike 
about it. They were agreed and all of 
the one mind on this subject. 

They were patient hearers. " From 
the morning until midday" they con- 
tinued to listen. Though so engaged 
for six hours it is not said that any one 
got tired. No one yawned, or gaped ; 
and there were no sleepy-heads among 



them. What a remarkable congrega- 
tion that must have been ! Why, now- 
a-days people get fidgety and restless if 
they have to listen to a Bible reader or 
a preacher for a few minutes over half 
an hour! How I should like to have 
a congregation of such patient hearers 
as Ezra had ! 

Then they were earnest hearers. 
They not only listened for six hours, 
but they stood all that time. In v, 5 it 
says, " all the people stood up." This 
showed that they were earnest. And 
then the way in which they listened 
showed how earnest they were. It says 
in v. 3, that " the ears of all the people 
were attentive unto the book of the 
law." Oh, if all our congregations 
were as earnest to hear as these Jews 
were, what real good times we should 
have in our churches! 

And then they were reverent hearers. 
When Ezra " blessed the Lord," all the 
people said "Amen, Amen, with lifting 
up their hands : and they worshipped 
the Lord with their faces to the 
ground " (v. 6). This showed great rev- 
erence. They were not in the temple or 
church, but out in the open air. Yet, 
like Jacob, they felt that " the Lord was 
in that place," and that gave them a 
feeling of awe and reverence. We 
should always have this feeling when 
hearing God's word or engaging in his 
worship. Let us all try to follow the 
example of Ezra's hearers. 



THE STAR OUT OF JACOB. 



THE picture represents the most im- 
portant event that ever took place 
in history, Jesus, the Son of God, 
born an infant, to undertake the great 
work of our redemption. 

When we look at a babe lying in the 
cradle, or in its mother's arms, we know 
that in that little helpless thing there is 
a mind, that may be able by-and-by to 
think great thoughts, and do great 
good in the world. But when we look 
at a picture of the infant Saviour, we 
can say to ourselves, " How feeble that 
babe seems ! " Nay, how feeble it is/ 
And yet, in some way that we cannot 
understand, the great God of heaven, 
the God who made this world, and all 
worlds, is in him and connected with 
him, and that he is indeed him whose 
goings forth have been from of old, 
from everlasting. 

THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH. 

We read in Matt. ii. I, that "Jesus 
was born in Bethlehem of Judaea." 
The name Bethlehem means " the 
house of bread." This was a very 
suitable name to be given to the birth- 
place of him who came to be the bread 
of life to a perishing world. But apart 
from the meaning of this name Bethle- 
hem, there was nothing particularly 
interesting about the place. We might 



have supposed that a person whose 
character was so great, and who had so 
great a work to do, would be born in 
some famous place. We should have 
chosen for his birth some great place 
like Jerusalem or Rome. But God's 
thoughts are not our thoughts, and he 
chose Bethlehem as the place where 
Christ was to be born. Hundreds of 
years before his birth, the prophet 
Micah had said, " But thou, Bethlehem 
Ephratah, though thou be little among 
the thousands of Judah, yet out of 
thee shall he come forth unto me that 
is to be ruler in Israel " (Micah v. 2). 

One reason for this, no doubt, was 
that God does not care for places. 
One place, with him, is as good as an- 
other. And another reason was, that 
Jesus is so great in himself, and so 
great in his work, that no place could 
add anything to his greatness. His 
birth would make any place famous as 
it has made Bethlehem. The place of 
his birth was wonderful. 

And then think of the birth o^ Christ 
as attended by 

WONDERFUL CIRCUMSTANCES. 

These circumstances were very dif- 
ferent from each other. Some of these 
showed how humble the birth of Christ 
was, while others of them showed how 

(87) 



THE STAR OUT OF JACOB. 



great and glorious it was. His first 
home was a stable, and his first cradle 
a manger. The persons to whom the 
tidings -of his birth were first made 
known were not kings and princes, or 
great and rich men, but poor, plain, 
unlearned shepherds. They were 
" keeping watch over their flock by 
night." These circumstances were of a 
very humble character. Luke ii. 8-20. 

But then there were others connected 
with Christ's birth that were glorious. 
An angel came from heaven to make it 
known. And when he had told the 
shepherds that the promised Saviour 
of the world was born, " a multitude " 
of angels appeared with him, to help 
him sing his song of praise. What a 
great thing this was ! Since the begin- 
ning- of the world nothing like this had 
ever taken place at the birth of any other 
child. In the stable where the infant 
Saviour lay, there was not much light. 
In the picture, all the light we see 
comes from the lamp on the little stand 
near the feet of Jesus. But outside 
where the angels were singing, the 
glory of heaven was shining. And so, 
when we think of the humble things and 
the grand, that attended our Saviour's 
birth, we may well say that the circum- 
stances of it were wonderful. 

And then the birth of Christ was 

WONDERFUL IN ITS EFFECTS. 

There is something said in our lesson 
about the effect of this birth both in 



heaven and on earth. What the effect 
in heaven will be, we see in Luke ii. 
14. The angel said it would bring 
" Glory to God in the highest ! " All 
God's works glorify him ; but the birth 
of Christ, and what followed it, will 
bring more glory to him than anything 
else, or all things else together. 

And then the angel spoke of two 
things on earth that were to follow 
from the birth of Christ. One of these 
was "peace." Jesus came to show us 
how we can have peace with God, and 
peace in our own hearts ; and then how 
we can, as the apostle says, " live 
peaceably with all men." Jesus said, 
in his sermon on the mount, " Blessed 
are the peace makers." And this is 
what he expects all his people to be. 

Then the angel said, " Fear not : for, 
behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy, which shall be to all people." 
The joy of having our sins pardoned is a 
great joy. The joy of having our 
hearts renewed is a great joy. The 
joy of knowing that God loves us, 
and that we love him, is a great 
joy; and the joy of knowing that 
we shall go to heaven when we die is a 
great joy. Such is the joy that Jesus 
brought us when he was born into our 
world. As soon as the shepherds 
heard about Jesus, they sought and 
found him. Let us follow their ex- 
ample, and then we shall have "great 
joyr 



THE GENTLE CALL. 



THE beautiful picture shows about 
where the city of Capernaum 
was situated. The exact spot is 
not known, but it is somewhere among 
the ruins now found scattered around 
on the northwestern coast of the Sea 
of Galilee. And this is the point which 
the picture exhibits. 

In this city Jesus taught some of his 
wonderful lessons, and did some of his 
most mighty works. There he exhib- 
ited the depth of his love, and the 
greatness of his compassion for sinners. 
Yet they "set at naught all his coun- 
sel, and would none of his reproof." 
It may have been that the yearning in- 
vitation, which you read in Matt. xi. 20 
-30, was given by the Saviour with 
Capernaum before his eyes. 

But let us look at some of the things 
which Jesus said before we come to the 
invitation. He taught what a great sin 
it is to neglect any opportunities of 
learning about him, and how terrible 
will be the punishment (vs. 20-25). 
Then he shows that it is our Father in 
heaven who decides what opportunities 
any of us shall have of learning about 
him (vs. 2*5, 26), and what great power 
he has to help all his people (v. 27). 

After this follows the blessed invita- 
tion (vs. 28-30). On another occasion 
(90) 



I we are told that the people "wondered 
! at the gracious words which proceeded 
! out of his mouth " (Luke iv. 22). They 
I might well have wondered when he ut- 

i tered the sweet words of this invitation. 

j 

J It is still extended. Though Jesus was 

I betrayed, maltreated, crucified, and 

j made to suffer all the pangs of death, 

and the terrors of the grave, he is still 

calling on sinners to " come unto me." 

THE KIND OF PERSONS INVITED. 

It is those "that labor and are heavy- 
laden." This means those who have 
heavy burdens to bear. Sin makes a 
burden. David speaks of his sins as a 
burden too heavy for him (Ps. xxxviii. 
4). You remember how Bunyan, in 
his "Pilgrim's Progress," represents 
Christian, when he began his journey 
from the city of Destruction, with a 
great burden on his shoulders, which 
he could not lay down, and no one 
could take off. He never got rid of it 
till he reached the foot of the cross. 
This burden was his sins. 

But then sorrows and troubles make 
up heavy burdens too. And we all 
have such burdens, either sins or sor- 
rows, and if we feel them to be heavy, 
and really want to be rid of them, we 
are the kind of persons to whom the 
invitation is given. 



THE GENTLE CALL. 



9* 



THE NUMBER OF PERSONS INVITED. 

The word put in to show this is a 
little word, but it has a very big mean- 
ing. It is the word ALL. Jesus says, 
"Come unto me, all ye that labor," 
etc. This does not mean all ye Jews, 
or all ye people of any other language, 
but it means all ye people of any coun- 
try, color, or creed. It means all per- 
sons, at any time, in any part of the 
world, who feel that they have burdens 
to bear, and want to get rid of them. 
We find such people everywhere. 
They make a very large company. 
But wherever such people are found, 
they are invited, Jesus speaks to them. 

BUT WHAT ARE WE INVITED TO DO? 

The invitation refers to two things. 
One is, "Come unto me." The other 
is, " Take my yoke upon you, and 
learn of me." These last two sayings 
both mean about the same thing. We 
are invited to "come to" Jesus. To 
come to Jesus means to believe what he 
says ; to take him at his word, and trust 
his promises. We may all do this. We 
may do it at once. We may do it just 
where we are, and just as we are. It is a 
very simple thing to accept this invita- 
tion of Jesus, and come to him just now. 

The other thing is, "Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me." This 
means that we must become the ser- 
vants of Jesus, and do what he tells us 
to do. If a farmer has a yoke of oxen 



that he wishes to plow his field, the 
first thing he does is to put the yoke 
on their necks. Then they are ready 
to go to work. And so when we take 
Jesus for our Master, and are ready to 
serve him and do his will, then we take 
his yoke upon us and learn of him. 
This is what we are invited to do. 

THE BLESSING PROMISED. 

There are two things in this prom- 
ised blessing. One is "rest:" "I will 
give you rest." If you have been 
carrying a heavy burden, when it is 
lifted off you feel at rest. When we 
come to Jesus we find rest in the par- 
don of our sins, and in knowing that 
he is our friend, and that he will be our 
keeper, helper, and guide. Knowing 
this our hearts feel at rest. 

But another part of the blessing 
which he promises to those who come 
to him is pleasant sei'vice. This is what 
he means when he says, " My yoke is 
easy, and my burden is light." And 
there are two things which make the 
service of Christ pleasant. One is the 
motive of love. When we know what 
Jesus has done for us, we cannot help 
but love him. And when we really 
love a person, that makes all we can 
do for him pleasant. And then the 
help we get in this service makes it 
pleasant. Jesus says, " I will help thee," 
and nothing can be hard when we have 
him for our helper. 



THE LEPER HEALED. 



THE best short account of our 
Saviour's life is that which the 
apostle Peter gave when he said, 
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with 
the Holy Ghost and with power : who 
went about doing good, and healing all 
that were oppressed of the devil ; for 
God was with him." He did good by 
the words that he spake, as well as 
by the wonderful works which he per- 
formed. We have one of these works, 
and a very interesting one, represented 
in the picture of the healing of the 
leper, of which we read in Mark i. 38- 

45- 

In this instance of healing the man 

who came to Jesus is called " a leper,' 1 

and the disease which he had is 

called " the leprosy." In other parts 

of the Bible, as well as from other 

books, we learn a great deal about it. 

It was what is called an Jie-red-i-ta-ry 

disease. This is a big word of five 

syllables. But there is no shorter word 

that can be used in the place of it. 

And though it is a big word, it can 

easily be explained. It means a disease 

that runs in families, and goes down 

from parents to children from one 

generation to another. 

Then it was a defiling disease. It 

made those who had it, according to 



the Jewish law, " unclean." They were 
not allowed to go to the temple and wor- 
ship with the rest of the people. And 
if a person who had the leprosy touched 
another person, who did not have it, 
that person would be made unclean by 
the mere touch. Therefore persons 
who had this disease were obliged to 
keep separate from other people and 
live apart. 

In the next place it was a deforming 
disease. Some diseases make persons 
look beautiful. As is sometimes the 
case with consumption. But the lep- 
rosy made those who had it look 
horrible. It came out in spots or 
blotches on the skin. It made the 
fingers and toes rot and fall off, so that 
it was painful to behold the poor 
creatures. 

Travellers through the Holy Land 
never forget the miserable lepers they 
have seen begging by the roadside. 

It was an incurable disease. The 
best physicians could do nothing with 
it. They had no medicine that would 
cure it or have any power to check its 
progress. God alone had power to 
cure it, and it was considered a miracle 
when he did so. 

And then it was a fatal disease. It 

was sure to end in death. 

(93) 



94 



THE LEPER HEALED. 



This dreadful disease illustrates, 
better than any other, the nature of 
that dreadful disease of sin, from which 
we are all suffering. 

The poor leper was cured, for " Jesus 
touched him, and said, / will, be tlion 
clean!' This was a miraculous cure. 
Jesus gave him no medicine. He used 
no outward means. It was by his own 
wonderful power alone that the poor 
leper was healed. How wonderful the 
power of Jesus is ! What is there that 
he cannot do ? 

And then it was an instant cure : 
" immediately the leprosy departed 
from him." This is very different from 
the way in which diseases are generally 
cured. We are not accustomed to see 
cures effected in this way. The cures 
brought about by medicines are almost 
always slow and gradual. And we are 
thankful enough to have our friends 
cured even in that way. 

At the same time it was a perfect 
cure : " the leprosy was cleansed." We 
often find disease only partly cured. 
Something remains which the medicine 
could not reach. It is like cutting 
down a tree, but letting the roots re- 
main in the ground. But when Jesus 
healed the leper, he healed him perfectly. 
Not only was the tree cut down, but 
the roots were all taken away. And 
Jesus has just the same power to heal 
the leprosy of our souls, which is sin. 

He can heal the soul as perfectly as 



he healed the body of this poor leper, 
but he does not do it so quickly. He 
begins the cure when we are converted. 
He carries it on all through life. The 
spirits of just men are made perfect 
when they die ; and their bodies will be 
made perfect at the resurrection. 

The consequences of the cure were 
two. One was, what the healed man 
was required to do by law. The other 
was, zvhat he was led to do by love. 

As to the first, Moses, at the com- 
mand of God, gave the Jewish people a 
particular law on this subject, as we 
read in the 14th chapter of Leviticus. 
When a man who had the leprosy was 
cured of it, there was a special offering 
for him to present to God, and special 
religious service for him to engage in. 
And it was to this that Jesus directed 
the attention of this man whom he had 
healed. The other consequence of 
the cure was what the man was led 
to do by love. " He went out and 
began to publish it much, and to 
blaze abroad " what Jesus had done for 
him. 

This seems very natural under the 
circumstances. His heart was so full 
of love and thankfulness for the great 
mercy showed to him in the healing of 
this dreadful disease, that he could not 
keep quiet. Let us learn from his 
example to show our gratitude to Jesus 
for saving us by telling to others what 
great things he has done for us. 



POWER OVER DEATH. 



IN this picture we see Jesus taking a 
young girl by the hand and raising 
her up. Behind him stand the 
three favored disciples whom he took in 
to be witnesses of the miracle, and on 
his left hand we see the father and 
mother of the girl, looking on with 
wonder to see what was taking place. 
See Mark v. 22, 23, 35-43. 
Notice : 

DEATH IS TO BE FOUND IN ALL PLACES. 

Here we find it in the house of a rich 
man — "ruler of the synagogue." Al- 
though it was a large and beautiful 
house, with every comfort that money 
could purchase, death was there. And 
this little girl was probably their 
youngest child. It may have been 
the only child they had ; yet in the 
ruler's house death came and seized his 
darling daughter. So death can come 
into any of our houses, and lay his 
hand on any of us. 

THE GREAT DISTRESS THAT ATTENDS 
DEATH. 

There was great sorrow in that 
ruler's house when his dear child was 
dead. I do not say that people in 
Eastern countries feel the loss of their 
friends more than we do, but they 
make a greater show of feeling. They 
tear their garments, and put ashes on 
(96) 



their heads, and utter loud cries them- 
selves, besides hiring persons who 
make a living by mourning for others 
when they are in trouble. It was prob- 
ably some of these hired mourners 
who are spoken of in these verses. 
They had come to the ruler's house, 
before our Saviour arrived, and had 
begun their business as mourners. 

But when death comes and takes 
away those we love, it always causes 
great distress as it did here. 

DEATH, WHEN IT COMES, ENDS ALL OUR 
HOPE FOR THIS LIFE. 

This ruler's servants came to him 
and said, "Thy daughter is dead; why 
troublest thou the Master any further?" 
They thought there was nothing for the 
father to do but to go home and weep 
over his daughter and bury her. The 
idea that the great Teacher, whose help 
the father had gone to ask, could do any- 
thing now when death had come, never 
seemed to enter their minds. They 
thought it was all over now. And the 
father himself would probably have 
thought and felt the same. We have no 
reason to suppose that he expected Jesus 
could make his dead daughter alive 
again ; though he did think that he 
could make his sick daughter well. 

And this is the case with us all. 



POWER OVER DEATH. 



97 



When death comes to our friends, it 
puts an end to all hope for them in this 
life. And it would have been so with 
the ruler in this lesson, if it had not 
been for the kind words which Jesus 
spoke : " Be not afraid, only believe." 
This led him to expect something, al- 
though his daughter was dead. And 
when Jesus leads us to expect things, 
in this way, he never disappoints us. 
And now see the 

POWER OVER DEATH, 

which Jesus exercised. It was a quiet 
power. Jesus made no noise or dis- 
play when he was about to put it forth. 
He did not blow a trumpet or call at- 
tention to what he was going to do. 
He did not gather a great crowd to- 
gether to see him. He did not even 
let the people in the house see what 
was to take place. On the contrary 
" he put them all out." No one was 
allowed to go in where the dead child 
was lying, but the five persons seen in 
our picture, the father and mother of 
the child, and the three disciples. Then 
Jesus took the child's hand and said, 
"Talitha cumi — damsel, I say unto thee 
arise." The power over death which 
Jesus exercised was quiet power. And 
the greatest powers that God is exer- 
cising all the time are quiet powers. 
How great the power is which makes 
the sun to rise and shine, and the dew 
to fall ! And yet no noise is made 
while these great works are going on. 
You never hear the sun rise. .You 
7 



never hear it shine. You never hear 
the dew fall. The power that carries 
on these great works, like the power 
over death, which Jesus put forth in 
the ruler's house — is a quiet power, it is 
a resistless poiver. 

No sooner had Jesus taken hold of 
this dead girl's hand, and spoken to 
her, than " straightway the damsel arose, 
and walked." How wonderful the 
power was that could do this ! If we 
were standing by a mountain, near the 
sea, and at the voice of Jesus, should 
see that mountain rise from its solid 
base and plunge into the sea, that 
would show us how wonderful the 
pow r er of Jesus was. If we were 
standing by Niagara, looking at its 
falling waters, and at the word of Jesus, 
we should see those waters halfway 
down the precipice, stop, and then go 
back over the edge of the precipice 
from which they had plunged, that 
would show us how wonderful the 
power of Jesus is. But the power 
which brought this dead child back to 
life was more wonderful than that which 
could remove a mountain and cast it 
into the sea, or stop Niagara^ floods 
in the midst of their fall, and roll their 
waters back. The heart of that child 
had stopped beating. The blood of 
that child had stopped flowing through 
its veins. The spirit of that child had 
left its body, and had entered the 
heavenly world. Yet Jesus had only 
to speak a word, and that still heart 



9 S 



POWER OVER DEATH. 



began to beat ; that stagnant blood 
began to flow, and that spirit came 
back from the heavenly world, and 
entered again into the body where it 
had been before. This was very won- 
derful. The power over death which 
Jesus exercised was resistless power. 
It zvas a blessed power. 

It was a blessing to that child, instead 
of being put into the cold grave, to be 
brought back to life, and to be restored 
to the fond embraces of her loving 
mother. It was a blessing to that 
ruler's home to have this dear child 
continued in it, instead of being buried 
in the graveyard. The presence of a 
good, obedient, loving child is like a 
sunbeam in a house. The sound of 
this child's voice or step had been, no 
doubt, like music to her parent's ears. 
And when their child died, they never 
expected to hear that music again. 
How sad their hearts, and how dark 
and gloomy their home would be, with- 
out their daughter's presence in it ! 
But now all that gloom was gone from 
their home, and all that sadness from 
their hearts, because their dead child 
was brought back to life again. 

Let us remember that Jesus has just 
the same power now that he had then, 



and that he can use it to help and bless 
all who love and serve him. Let us 
pray that God may make us his ser- 
vants, and then we may be sure that he 
will use his powers to do for us all 
that we need to have done for our sal- 
vation. 



Going Home. 

Our beloved have departed, 
While we tarry broken-hearted, 

In the dreary, empty house ; 
They have ended life's brief story, 
They have reached the home of glory, 

Over death victorious ! 

Hush that sobbing, weep more lightly, 
On we travel, daily, nightly, 

To the rest that they have found : 
Are we not upon the river, 
Sailing fast, to meet forever, 

On more holy, happy ground ? 

Whilst with bitter tears we're mourning 
Thought to buried love returning, 

Time is hastening us along, 
Downward to the grave's dark dwelling, 
.Upward to the fountain welling, 

With eternal life and song ! 

Ah ! the way is shining clearer, 
As we journey, ever nearer 

To our everlasting home. 
Friends, who there await our landing, 
Comrades round the throne now standing, 

We salute you, and we come. 



THE FEAST IN THE WILDERNESS. 



HERE is a picture of one of the 
most remarkable miracles that 
our blessed Saviour performed 
while on earth, and which all the four 
Evangelists give an account of. This 
shows how important the miracle was. 
You may read about it in Mark vi. 

34-44- 

What a great crowd of people we see ! 

There were five thousand men, "beside 
women and children" and as it is 
likely there were at least as many 
women and children as there were 
men, there must have been ten thou- 
sand persons to be fed. There is one 
mistake in the picture. It represents 
this great multitude as crowded closely 
together. But this was not so : " they 
sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by 
fifties." They were seated in regular 
order, in lines, or ranks, with wide 
spaces between them, so that the disci- 
ples could easily go among them, and 
distribute the food received from their 
Master. 

Now here let us notice the tenderness 
or compassion of Jesus. 

We read, " when he came out, saw 
much people, and was moved with 
compassion." It was not so much 
their number that touched the heart of 
Jesus, as their misery and want. It 
(100) 



was "because they were as sheep not 
having a shepherd." Their bodies 
were hungry, and their souls were 
hungry too. When he looked round 
on that great multitude, he knew how 
many sorrowful hearts there were. 
Many of them were burdened with sin, 
which they knew not how to get rid of. 
This made his loving heart feel very 
tender and pitiful towards them. He 
had been trying to feed their souls with 
the sweet lessons of truth ; but, not 
satisfied with that, he is going to work 
a miracle in order to feed their hungry 
bodies. 

And this is just the way Jesus feels 
now towards poor, sinful, needy crea- 
tures like ourselves. He has the same 
tender, loving, compassionate heart, al- 
though he is in heaven, that he had 
when he was on earth. He is " merci- 
ful, and gracious, and full of compas- 
sion." " He careth for us." As a fa- 
ther pitieth his children, so the Lord is 
very pitiful. "As one whom his 
mother comforteth, so will I comfort 
you," is his own precious promise to 
us. 

Now see his wonderful power. There 
is no particular word spoken which 
shows the power which Jesus put forth 
on this occasion. It is only when we 



THE FEAST IN THE WILDERNESS. 



101 



read the whole account, and see what 
was done, that we can understand how 
wonderful this power was. Here was 
a great crowd of from five to ten 
thousand hungry people to be fed. 
And there was nothing to do so but 
" five barley loaves, and two small 
fishes." These loaves were not like 
our big loaves of home-made bread ; or 
even like a good-sized loaf of baker's 
bread. They were only thin cakes, 
something like our biscuits. I suppose 
any one hungry man in that crowd 
could have eaten up the whole supply 
and not have felt that he had had quite 
enough. 

Well, Jesus blessed these little loaves 
and fishes, and then began to break 
them up and give them to his disciples. 
They gave them to the hungry people, 
and then came back for more. Jesus 
went on breaking the bread and the 
fishes. And as he broke them they 
grew in his hands. And they kept on 
growing more and more, till all that 
hungry crowd had eaten just as much 
as they could. The food had increased 
faster than the people could eat it, so 
that when they had done eating, there 
were great piles of pieces left — enough 
to fill twelve baskets. How wonderful 
this was ! Jesus was creating bread 
and fishes all the* time that these 
people were eating. The power to 
create is a wonderful power. All the 
men in the world, and all the angels in 
heaven, if they should try ever so long, 



could not create anything. None but 
God can create. But Jesus created. 
Then it is certain that Jesus is God. 
He has the same power now, and the 
same tenderness that he had when on 
earth. Then we may be perfectly sure 
that he is quite willing and able to help 
us whenever we pray to him. 

These things about Jesus are very 
comforting for us to know. 

But there are two things about' our 
own duty which it is very important for 
us to realize. 

The first is, a lesson of obedience. 

Jesus told the disciples to " make the 
men sit down," and they did it. Then 
he told them to distribute the pieces of 
bread and fishes to them, and they did 
this. If they had not obeyed their 
Master in these things, the loaves and 
fishes would not have been multiplied, 
and the hungry people would not have 
been fed. It was through the blessing 
of Jesus, and the ready obedience of 
his disciples, that all this good was 
done. 

And this teaches us a very important 
lesson. That crowd of hungry people 
represents the multitudes of people in 
the world who are hungering for the 
bread of life. The food which Jesus 
put into the hands of his disciples rep- 
resents the gospel. This is the only 
thing which can satisfy the wants of 
hungry souls. The disciples obeyed 
their Master when he told them to dis- 
tribute this food. They never stopped 



102 



THE EEAST IN THE WILDERNESS. 



distributing it till every hungry person 
was fed. 

And here is a good example for us 
to follow. Jesus has given us his 
bjessed gospel. This is the bread of 
heaven for hungry souls. We are to 
eat it for the good of our own souls, 
and then we are to give it to the 
hungry, just as the disciples did. 
Jesus says to us : " Freely ye have re- 
ceived, freely give." This was his 
command to the disciples. They obeyed 
it promptly, and all that hungry multi- 
tude were soon fed. What millions of 
people are hungering for this bread ! 
Jesus commands us to go give if to 
them. Let us follow the example of 
the disciples by doing all we can to 
feed the hungry with the bread of life. 

The second is, a lesson of careful- 
ness. 

In John's account of this miracle, 
Jesus said: "Gather up the fragments 
that remain that nothing be lost''' 
Now we might suppose that if ever 
there was a time when carefulness was 
not necessary, that was the time. Jesus 
had just been showing how easy it was 
for him to make bread. All that hun- 
gry crowd were fed and satisfied, and 
great piles of food were lying around. 
It might have been thought therefore 
that then it was not necessary to be 
careful, about the pieces. And yet it 



was just then Jesus taught the lesson 
of carefulness, " Gather up the frag- 
ments that remain that nothing be lost." 
God never wastes anything. I remem- 
ber when I was a little boy, my dear 
mother, now in heaven, used to teach 
me this lesson of carefulness by quoting 
to me the old proverb, " Wilful waste 
brings woeful want." Let us all try to 
learn well this lesson of carefulness. 
Let us " gather up the fragments " of 
time — the fragments of knowledge — 
the fragments of money — the frag- 
ments of opportunities of doing good, 
and we shall grow rich in goodness, 
and usefulness, and happiness. 



Christ who is our life. 

O Bread of life, from heaven 
To saints on earth now given, 

O Manna from above ! 
The souls that hunger feed Thou, 
The hearts that seek Thee lead Thoa, 

With Thy sweet, tender love. 

O Fount of grace redeeming, 
O River ever streaming 

From Jesus' holy side ! 
Come Thou, Thyself bestowing 
On thirsting souls, and flowing 

Till all are satisfied. 

Jesus, this feast receiving, 
Thy word of truth believing, 

We Thee unseen adore ; 
Grant, when the -veil is rended, 
That we, to heaven ascended, 

May see Thee evermore. 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. 



THIS transfiguration was one of the 
most surprising things that took 
place during our Saviour's life on 
earth. In the gospel by Matthew (xvii. 
1-13) we have a simple history of this 
great event. We cannot tell just 
exactly where the transfiguration took 
place. We are only told that Jesus 
took Peter, James and John, and 
brought them up into a high mountain 
apart. Some people think that this 
refers to one of the summits of Mount 
Hermon, in the northern part of Pales- 
tine. Others think that Mount Tabor, 
near Nazareth, on the Plain of Esdraelon, 
was the place where this wondrous 
scene took place. I think that this was 
the place, and so have selected a picture 
of Mount Tabor. I rode up to the top 
of this mountain when in the Holy 
Land. The top of the mountain is 
very broad, as you may see in the 
picture, and there are plenty of snug, 
quiet, out-of-the-way places where an 
event such as this might have taken 
place, without being seen by any one 
except those connected with it. 

I cannot prove that the transfiguration 
took place on the top of Mount Tabor; 
and so if other persons think that 
Mount Hermon was the place, I have 
nothing to say against it. But instead 
(104) 



of thinking more on the place, rather 
let us think of the glory of the trans- 
figuration, the company connected with 
it, and the lessons which it teaches. 

THE GLORY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION. 

This was what made the strongest 
impression on the mind of the apostle 
Peter. For, long after, he said that 
" He," Christ, " received from God the 
Father honor and glory, when there 
came such a voice to him from the ex- 
cellent glory, This is my beloved Son 
in whom I am well pleased." 

The glory of the transfiguration 
appears in the wonderful change which 
took place in our blessed Lord. There 
was a change in his person. We 
are told that " his face did shine as the 
sun." How strange this must have 
seemed ! I suppose the face of the 
Saviour appeared then as it may ap- 
pear in heaven, when his saved people 
look upon him there. If we are per- 
mitted at last to look on his face there, 
we shall feel that it is the most blessed 
of all sights. That will satisfy our 
souls as nothing else in all the world 
can do. 

And then there was a change in his 
dress. Matthew says " his raiment was 
white as the light." Mark says it was 
" exceeding white as snow ; so as no 



THE TRANSFIGURATION. 



io5 



fuller on earth can white them;" and our Saviour; when we think that they 
Luke says, " his raiment was white and were only to come this once during his 
glistering." This change took place in whole life on earth ; that they were 
order that the disciples might see what only to stay a little while with him ; 
his glory will be when he comes in his \ and yet that out of all the many sub- 
heavenly kingdom. Wonderful indeed jects they might have talked about, 
was the glory of Jesus as seen on the ; they chose this one — they talked about 



Mount of Transfiguration. 

THE COMPANY CONNECTED WITH THE 
TRANSFIGURATION. 

Peter and James and John were part 
of this company. But they were not 
the most important persons in it. No, 
for we are told " there appeared unto 
them Moses and Elias," or Elijah, 
44 talking with " Jesus. How strange 
this must have been ! No king or 
emperor was ever honored with such 
company. Elijah had been in heaven 
about nine hundred years, and Moses 
almost fifteen hundred years, when they 
appeared on this mount. The apostles 
had never seen these ancient and 
honored servants of God. But they 
knew them, either from listening to the 
conversation they had with Jesus, or 
because God told them who these 
strangers were. 

Matthew does not tell what they 
talked with Jesus about. But from 
Luke (ix. 31) we learn that they spoke 
about the death of Jesus, which was 
soon to take place at Jerusalem. And 
when we think of these two great 
persons coming from heaven to visit 



his death — this shows us, more clearly 
than anything else could have done, 
the importance of Christ's death. 

THE LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE TRANS- 
FIGURATION. 

We might speak of many lessons 
here taught us, but we have only room 
for two. A cloud came down over the 
glory and the company on the mount, 
and out of that cloud the voice of God 
the Father was heard saying, " This is 
my beloved Son, . . . hear ye him." 

One lesson we should learn from this 
voice is to think more of jfesus than 
any one else. The disciples no doubt 
were disappointed when they found that 
Moses and Elias — their great visitors — 
had gone away so soon. But when this 
voice was heard it seemed to say to 
them, " Nevermind Moses. Nevermind 
Elias. Never mind any one else. Jesus 
my beloved Son is with you still. 
Think more of him than any one .else." 

The other lesson taught us by this 
voice is to mind what Jesns says. 
" Hear ye him." This means mind 
him. This is the most important lesson 
for us all to learn. " Hear him ! " 



THE POOR CHILD BLESSED. 



TT THAT a wonderful difference there 
V Y is between the subject of this 
illustration, and that which we 
had in our last story ! There we saw 
Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration 
with all the glory of heaven shining 
around him ! But that glory passes 
away. He came down from the moun- 
tain, and almost the first thing he saw 
was this poor child possessed by an 
evil spirit. If you think of the glory 
that appeared on the top of the moun- 
tain, and the misery at the foot of it, 
the contrast is very strange and strik- 
ing. If your parents or teacher can 
show you the picture of Raphael's 
Transfiguration, you will see both these 
strange scenes presented at one view. 
But read the evangelist's own account of 
this subject: you will find it in Mark ix. 
17-29. At the time when our Saviour 
was on earth, God allowed Satan to 
exercise more power over the bodies of 
men than he has done, either before or 
since. He entered into the bodies of 
men and animals, and controlled their 
limbs, made them do what he pleased, 
very much as an engineer controls the 
wheels and movements of his engine. 
In the case before us the evil spirit is 
called " a dumb spirit," because he 
controlled the tongue of this child, and 



kept him from speaking. He also 
made the child gnash his teeth, and 
foam at the mouth, and oftentimes 
threw him on the ground and made 
him scratch and tear his flesh with 
his finger-nails. No wonder that the 
poor child was " pining away " under 
such circumstances. This shows how 
great the power of Satan is when 
he is allowed to use it. It shows, too, 
how much he loves to torment people, 
and make them unhappy, and as he 
had exercised this power on this poor 
boy, from the time he was a child, it 
shows us how diligent he is. He be- 
gins as soon as he can. He does 
not wait till we grow up ; but begins 
while we are very young. And though 
he has not the same power over our 
bodies that he had over the body of 
this child, yet he has great power over 
our souls. And he controls the body 
through the soul. He does not often 
tempt us to be dumb and not to speak. 
But he tempts us to tell lies, to use pro- 
fane or wicked words, to be cross and 
ill-tempered, to" quarrel and to fight, and 
in these ways he shows his power over us. 
In these things we are doing Satan's 
work, and we should pray with all our 
might for grace to resist these tempta- 
tions. 

(W7) 



io8 



THE POOR CHILD BLESSED. 



In the 1 8th verse we are told how 
the father of this child brought him to 
the disciples that they might cast out 
the evil spirit, but they could not. The 
disciples asked Jesus why they had 
failed, and he said that " this kind can 
come forth by nothing, but by prayer 
and fasting." From this it would seem 
that the disciples had tried to cast out 
the evil spirit by their own power, and 
therefore they did not succeed. They 
were good men, but the best men in 
the world have no power in themselves 
to do good. On another occasion 
Jesus said to his disciples, "Without 
me ye can do liotliing" This is as true 
now as it was then, and we should 
never forget it. We can get no good 
to ourselves from reading the Bible, 
from prayer, from going to Sunday- 
school or church ; and we can do no 
good to others, by any efforts of our 
own, without God's, help. But if we 
pray earnestly to God to help us, then 
it will be very different. The Apostle 
Paul said, " I can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me." And 
this is as true of you and me, as it was 
of Paul. We can get no good to our- 
selves, and do no good to others, with- 
out the help of Jesus. Here comes in 

THE IMPORTANCE Of FAITH. 

In the 23d verse Jesus said, " If thou 
canst believe, all things are possible 
to him that believeth." This is very 
encouraging. The faith which the 
father of this child had was very weak 



and imperfect. He hardly knew 
whether to believe in Jesus or not. 
In the 22d verse he said to him, " If 
thou canst do anything, have compassion 
on us, and help us." This was very 
weak faith. It was very different from 
the faith of the centurion, who came to 
Jesus to get him to heal his sick 
servant. His faith was so strong that 
he did not think it necessary even for 
Jesus to come to his house. He said 
to him, " Speak the word only, and my 
servant shall be healed." But true 
faith, even when very weak, is precious 
and powerful. The faith of the father 
of this child was feeble indeed ; yet it 
brought him to Jesus, and secured the 
release of his child from the power 
of the evil spirit. Jesus said, "All 
things are possible to him that be- 
lieveth." Let us remember this. In 
the nth chapter of the epistle to the 
Hebrews we read of the wonderful 
things that have been done by faith. 
There we have the best illustration that 
can be given of the meaning of our 
Saviour's words in this 22d verse. 

And when we think of the blessed- 
ness of a. strong faith, we may well 
pray as the apostles did, " Lord, in- 
crease our faith." 

THE POWER AND TENDERNESS OF JESUS. 

This is the sweetest thought in the 
whole passage. Everything about 
Jesus is precious ; but nothing is so 
precious as the great power of Jesus 
to help us, and the tenderness with 



THE POOR CHILD BLESSED. 



109 



which he is ready to use that power 
for our help and comfort. How 
beautifully illustrated are these things 
when he commands the evil spirit to 
come out of the poor child. When- 
ever these evil spirits came into the 
presence of Jesus, they felt that they 
were in the presence of their Master, 
and whatever he told them they were 
obliged to do. Although that was so, 
and the evil spirit found he must go 
out of the child, he resolved to do him 
as much harm as he could. So he left 
the poor child, " as one dead ; " and 
" many said, he is dead," v. 26. But 
Jesus having as much power over the 
bodies of men as over their minds and 
souls, he " took him by the hand, and 
lifted him up; and he arose." The 
word, or touch of Jesus, can heal the 
sick and raise the dead, and cast out 
devils, and do anything that he wishes 
to have done. 

But see the tenderness of Jesus, as 
well as his power, for it was his tender- 
ness which led him to say to the 
distressed father, when pleading for his 
poor afflicted child, as Matthew men- 
tions, chap. xvii. 17: "Bring him 
hither to me!' And so, as soon as he 
was brought, he healed him, and sent 
the father home happy and rejoicing. 

Remember, that the power and 
tenderness of yesus are the same now 
that thev were then. He is " the same 



yesterday, to-day, and forever." We 
may change, and all about us may 
change, but he never changes. 

Remember what to do when in trouble. 
Take your troubles to Jesus, as this 
man brought his afflicted child. He 
can help and comfort when none else 
can. 

And remember, also, the importance 
of faith in Jesus. Help and comfort 
now, and salvation forever, can only 
come from faith in him. 



" They brought unto Him all that were diseased. 

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old, 

Was strong to heal and save, 
It triumphed o'er disease and death, 

O'er darkness and the grave ; 
To Thee they went, the blind, the dumb, 

The palsied and the lame, 
The leper with his tainted life, 

The sick with fevered frame. 

And lo ! Thy touch brought life and health, 

Gave speech, and strength, and sight ; 
And youth renewed, and frenzy calmed, 

Owned Thee, the Lord of light ; 
And now, O Lord, be near to bless, 

Almighty as of yore, 
In crowded street, by restless couch, 

As by Gennesaret's shore. 

Be Thou our great Deliverer still, 

Thou Lord of life and death ; 
Restore and quicken, soothe and bless, 

With Thine almighty breath ; 
To hands that work and eyes that see, 

Give wisdom's heavenly lore, 
That whole, and sick, and weak, and strong, 

May praise Thee evermore. 



THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES. 



IT was on the night in which he was 
betrayed that Jesus spake to his dis- 
ciples about the " vine and its branches." 
He had kept the Passover with them 
for the last time. At the close of the 
feast, he instituted, or established, the 
Lord's Supper, which was to be kept by 
his people everywhere in remembrance 
of his death, until he comes again. And 
while they were unwilling to leave the 
table, Jesus comforted his disciples, 
by his speech about all the interesting 
things that we find written in the 
14th, 15th and 16th chapters of John. 
And it is here that this lesson about 
the vine applies. In the picture you 
see a vine growing over the door of 
the room in which Jesus then was, 
This may have been so, for there were 
plenty of vines in and around Jeru- 
salem. It was then the time of the 
full moon. The door was probably 
open, and the moonbeams shining 
through the branches, and we may 
think of Jesus as pointing to the 
rustling leaves of that vine, as he went on 
talking, and said, " I am the true vine," 
etc. He compared himself to a vine, and 
his people to its branches. Now, what 
does the vine do for its branches? 

THE VINE GIVES LIFE. 

The root or stock of the vine is full 



of life, and it is the budding forth of 
this life which makes the branches alive. 
All the branches on a vine get their 
life from the vine. And so Jesus gives 
life to his people. We are told, "in him 
was life." John i. 4. Jesus said him- 
self, '-I am come that they might have 
life." John x. 10. But in addition to life, 

THE VINE GIVES GROWTH. 

The sap from the root of the vine 
flows up through the branches, and 
causes them to put forth leaves and 
grow. Break off a branch from the 
vine, and it soon becomes dry and dead. 
It grows no more. And so, by the 
grace that Jesus gives his people, they 
"grow up unto him in all things." In 
John xv. 5, Jesus says, " without me ye 
ca?i do nothing." And then, besides life 
and growth, 

THE VINE GIVES FRUITFULNESS. 

In verses 4th and 5th, Jesus teaches 
us that the way for a branch to be 
fruitful is for it to remain in the vine, 
and also that a branch can bear no fruit 
if it be broken off from the vine; and 
so he tells us that we can bear no fruit 
of good works unless we "abide in 
him." We cannot think a good thought, 
or speak a good word, or do a good 
deed, without the help of Jesus. Well 
might he call himself "the vine!' 

fi.nl 



112 



THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES. 



But Jesus says, " I am the true vine." 
This means that he is the one that was 
foretold by the prophets. Isaiah speaks 
of him as " the rod out of the stem of 
Jesse," and he says "a Branch shall 
grow out of his roots" (Isa. xi. i). In 
another place he says he should " grow 
up ... as a root out of a dry ground " 
(Isa. liii. 2). This is just the way a vine 
appears before it begins to grow. He 
is " the true vine," because he was the 
one foretold by the prophets as " the 
man whose name is The Branch ; and 
he shall grow up out of his place, and 
he shall build the temple of the Lord " 
(Zech. vi. 12). And this is what Jesus 
here teaches us about himself. 

And now let us know something 
about the branches. 

To be useful or able to do good to 
others is the greatest of all privileges. 
The greatest honor or privilege in the 
world is to be like Jesus. For when 
he was on earth, he " went about doing 
good." He was always bearing fruit. 
And this is true of him still. Jesus is 
good, and Jesus does good. And it is 
a privilege to be doing good, or bear- 
ing fruit, because in this way we be- 
come more like Jesus. 

Jesus says (v. 1) that his " Father is 
the husbandman." He is the owner of 
the vineyard, or church. He takes 
care of all the branches. If any are 
not bearing as much fruit as they ought, 
hz " purgeth " or pruneth them, " that" 



they " may bring forth more fruit " 
(v. 2). Sometimes God uses trials or 
afflictions for this purpose. Some may 
ask — is it a privilege to be afflicted ? 
Yes, if it is sure to do us good. When 
we are sick, it is a privilege to have a 
good physician to give us medicine that 
will make us well. Trials are God's 
medicine. 

All the fruit we bear, and all the good 
we do as Christ's people, helps to 
glorify God. This is what we were 
made for. This is what the angels do 
in heaven, and this is the greatest pri- 
vilege we can have. 

Another thing that Jesus teaches 
about his people is their duty. This is 
taught in the first part of v. 4, "Abide in 
me and I in your This means that we 
must be all the time trying to please 
Jesus, and to get all the blessings he 
gives to his people. Remember that to 
"abide in Jesus," means to keep from 
doing anything that we know will dis- 
please him. This is our duty. Let us 
never forget this. 

And then the other thing that Jesus 
teaches about his people is their danger 
(v. 2). Jesus says there may be 
branches in him that bear no fruit. 
This means, I suppose, those who join 
the church without being Christians. 
If they continue so, they will be "taken 
away!' This is a fearful danger. Let us 
prove that we are true Christians by bear- 
ing much fruit. Then we shall be safe. 



THE TRAITOR. 



IN the picture the front figure on the 
right hand side represents Jesus, 
our Saviour ; the front figure on 
the left hand side, standing sideways, 
with his right hand stretched out, rep- 
resents Judas Iscariot, who betrayed 
Jesus. Two characters more widely 
different from each other were never 
brought so closely together. What a 
difference in their appearance ! How 
bright, and calm, and good, and beauti- 
ful the face of Jesus appears ! How 
dark, and troubled, and wicked, and 
ugly the face of Judas is ! The differ- 
ence we see here in their faces fairly 
represents the difference in their char- 
acters. 

In Mark xiv. 26, we read that "when 
they had sung an hymn, they went out 
into the mount of Olives." John says, 
Jesus " went forth with his disciples 
over the brook Kedron, where was a 
garden." And Matthew tells us that 
the place where the betrayal took 
place was called Gcthsemane. There 
Jesus passed through " the agony and 
bloody sweat." Every traveller to Jeru- 
salem visits this spot. It is very easy to 
find. You go out by one of the gates of 
the city, walk down the hill, cross the 
brook Kedron, over an old stone bridge, 
with one arch, perhaps the very one that 
(»4) 



Jesus and his disciples walked over, 
and there, on the sloping side of the 
mount of Olives, is Gethsemane. It is 
a garden still, enclosed by a stone wall, 
and containing a number of very old 
olive trees. These are probably not 
the same that were there when Jesus 
was betrayed, but very likely they are 
the descendants of those very trees. 
And when you stand under the shade 
of those trees, you know, without much 
doubt, that you are on the spot where 
Jesus bore the awful baptism of blood, 
and where his betrayal took place. No 
one who goes there will ever forget it. 

The exact hour of the betrayal is 
not mentioned, and yet from what Jesus 
had been doing, we know it must 
have been late at night. He had kept 
the Jewish passover with his disciples. 
This was always kept after dark. Then 
he established that blessed sacrament, 
which he intends his people to keep 
as long as the world stands, and which 
we call the Lord's Supper. Afterwards 
he preached a wonderfully interesting 
sermon to his disciples, which we have 
in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
chapters of John. Then he offered a 
I loving prayer for them, and for you and 
me, and all his people. We find this 
prayer in the seventeenth chapter of 



THE TRAITOR. 



"5 



John. Then they sang a hymn (Mark 
xiv. 26), and afterwards they walked to 
the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus 
suffered his dreadful agony (vs. 32-42). 
And it was after all this that the be- 
trayal took place. Of course it must 
have taken a long time to do all these 
things. It must have been very late — 
quite midnight — when the traitor and 
his band came to take Jesus. The 
passover always took place at the time 
of the full moon. If it was not a cloudy 
night the moonbeams must have been 
shining through the trees in the garden 
of Gethsemane. If it was a cloudy 
night it must have been very dark, and 
here we see the only defect in our pic- 
ture. This represents it as being in 
broad daylight. Mark says, " a great 
multitude " came " with swords and 
staves." John says, that they came 
" with lanterns, and torches, and weap- 
ons." This shows that the time of the 
betrayal was dark night. The lanterns 
and torches are left out of the picture, 
but the fact that these were used shows 
that the betrayal took place at night. 

Every one knows that it was Judas 
Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. In verse 
43 we read, "-While he yet spake, cometJi 
Judas, one of the tzvelve." We know 
nothing about the history of Judas 
before he became one of the apostles. 
But he was "one of the twelve." He 
was with Jesus all the time of his public 
ministry. He heard his teachings. He 
saw his wonderful works. He was even 



an officer of the little company, being 
their treasurer, having charge of then- 
money. He must have preached and 
worked miracles himself, when he was 
sent forth with the other disciples. And 
yet this man did the wickedest deed 
that was ever done on the face of this 
globe. Look at him in the picture. 
He is just stretching out his hand to 
take hold of Jesus and kiss him. This 
is the sign he gave to the soldiers. He 
said to them, " Whomsoever I shall kiss, 
that same is he ; take him, and lead him 
away safely." Luke tells us that when 
he did this, Jesus said to him, " Judas, 
betrayest thou the Son of man with a 
kiss ? " John mentions an interesting 
circumstance in this betrayal, which is 
not stated in the other gospels. When 
the band came up to Jesus, he asked 
them whom they sought. " They an- 
swered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus 
saith unto them, I am he." As he spake 
these words the men who had come to 
take him stepped back, as if frightened, 
"and fell to the ground." One would 
think that after this they would have 
been afraid to touch him, but it was not 
so : they rose and came up to him 



again. 



Then the incident took place that is 
mentioned by Luke, about one of the 
disciples drawing his sword and cutting 
off the ear of one of the band, and 
how Jesus healed it with a touch. This 
was Peter. We see him in the picture, 
standing just behind Jesus on the right, 



u6 



THE TRAITOR. 



and laying his hand on his sword. But 
Jesus told him, after healing the man's 
ear, to put up his sword. Then he 
gave himself up, and asked them to let 
his disciples go. His enemies then 
took him away, and all his disciples 
" forsook him, and fled." 

THE LESSONS OF THE BETRAYAL. 

One lesson is the danger of tempta- 
tion. We do not know when Judas 
first thought of committing this great 
sin. When he was following Jesus, as 
one of his disciples, he probably thought 
as little of doing this dreadful thing as 
any other of the disciples. But there 
came a time when we are told that 
"Satan entered into him" This means 
that Satan tempted him to commit this 
terrible sin. We do not know whether 
he struggled against Satan, but we do 
know that at last he yielded to the 
temptation, and did what Satan wanted 
him to do. Our Saviour has taught us 
to pray every day, ""Lead us not into 
temptation!' 

The weakness of good men is another 
lesson. The other apostles were 
all good men. They really loved 
Jesus. They had all promised not 
to forsake him, and yet when the j 
soldiers took hold, of him "they ail 
forsook him and fled!' Let us learn 
from this not to trust to our own 
strength, but pray God to help us by 
his grace. 

The kindness of Jesus to his people is 
the last lesson. He was not angry 



with his disciples because they forsook 
him. When he met them after his res- 
urrection he did not reproach them for 
what triey had done. He spoke kindly 
to them. Let us follow his example 



"■Surely he hath borne our griefs." 

O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head ! 

Our load was laid on Thee ; 
Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead, 

Bearing all ill for me : 
A victim led, Thy blood was shed; 

Kow there's no load for me. 

Death and the curse were in our cup — 

O Christ, 'twas full for Thee ! 
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop — 

' Tis empty now for me ! 
That bitter cup — Love drank it up ; 

Now blessing's draught for me. 

The Father lifted up His rod — 

O Christ, it fell on Thee ! 
Thou wast sore stricken of Thy God ; 

There's not one stroke for me, 
Thy tears, Thy blood beneath it flowed , 

Thy bruising healeth me. 

The tempest's awful voice was heard — 

O Christ, it broke on Thee ! 
Thy open bosom was my ward, 

It braved the storm for me. 
Thy form was scarred — Thy visage marred ; 

Now cloudless peace for me. 

The Holy One did hide his face — 
O Christ 'twas hid from Thee ! 

Dumb darkness wrapped Thy soul a space, 
The darkness due to me; 

But now that face of radiant grace 
Shines forth in light on me. 

For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died, 

And I have died in Thee ! 
Thou'rt risen ; my bonds are all untied ; 

And now Thou liv'st in me. 
When purified, made white, and tried, 

Thy glory then for me ! 



THE DENIAL. 



IT is a sad scene which this picture 
sets before us. Here we see the 
apostle Peter, even in the presence 
of his Master, Jesus, denying that he 
has ever known him. We should feel 
sorry to see a vessel wrecked. A 
little while ago it was sailing gallantly 
on its way. Its tall masts stood erect, 
and its beautiful sails were swelling 
with the wind. But now its masts are 
broken ; its sails are torn, and it is 
stranded on the rocks. It is a sad 
sight to see it in this condition, and 
even though no lives were lost, and we 
know it may be got off the rocks and 
repaired, yet it is sad to see it a wreck. 
We see such a wreck in poor Peter. 
Learn from this 

THE GREAT WEAKNESS, EVEN OF GOOD MEN. 

Peter was a good man. He really 
loved Jesus. He was one of the first 
who was called to be a disciple, and 
was with him all through his ministry. 
He had heard all his teachings, and 
had seen all his wonderful works. He 
was one of the three disciples who were 
with him on the mount of Transfigura- 
tion, and had seen his agony in the 
garden of Gethsemane. How strange 
it was that such a man as he should be 
guilty of a sin like this ! But so it 
was. And Peter was not alone in this 
(118) 



respect. We see the same in most of 
the good men whose histories are given 
us in the Bible. Noah, and Abraham, 
and Moses, and David, and Hezekiah, 
were all good men. But they all had 
some weak part about them. Like 
Peter they all did wrong some time. 
Our blessed Saviour is the only one 
who ever lived on this earth, whose 
life was always perfect. Let us remem- 
ber how weak we are, and pray ear- 
nestly to God to help us. 

THE DANGER OF GOING INTO TEMPTATION. 

Jesus had fairly warned Peter that 
there was some great danger lying 
before him. He had said to him, not 
long before, " Simon, Simon, behold 
Satan hath desired to have you, that he 
may sift you as wheat." Here we see 
Peter put into the sieve, and Satan 
sifting him. 

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus 
had said to him and the other disciples, 
" Watch and pray that ye enter not into 
temptation." These warnings ought to 
have put Peter on his guard. He 
ought to have said to himself: " Now I 
must be very careful where I go and 
what I do." If he wanted to follow 
Jesus at all, he ought to have gone as 
close up to him as he could, and have 
been willing to be known as the friend 



THE DENIAL. 



119 



and follower of that innocent prisoner, j says : " Peter called to mind the word 
as John did. He had no business to that Jesus said unto him, Before the 
go and thrust himself into the company cock crow twice thou shalt deny me 
of persons who were known to be the thrice." Now he felt what a bitter 
enemies of Jesus. As a good man thing sin is. Somebody says that 
once said: " If we want to keep out of "sin is like a bee, that carries honey 
harm, we must keep out of harm's before it, but a sting behind it." The 
way." We are taught to pray, " Lead taste of the honey soon passes away, 
us not into temptation." But Peter but the pain of the sting lasts, O so 
thrust himself right in the way of long! 

temptation, when he went among the It is said that during all the rest of 
Roman soldiers and the servants of the his life Peter never heard the sound of 
high priest. We never can tell what the cock crowing without thinking of 
we shall do when we are tempted. ! his sin and weeping over it afresh. This 
Our only safety is in watching and j may not be unlikely. The sound of that 
praying against temptation, and then I crowing would always remind him of 
trying to keep out of the way of it. j that dreadful night, of the scene in the 

palace of the high priest, and of his 
own great sin. Let us beware of sin 
because it is evil in itself and because 
of the sorrow that must follow it. But 
see 

THE TENDERNESS OF JESUS. 

There was no anger in the look he 
gave to Peter. He did not reproach 
him for what he had done. And when 



THE SORROW THAT FOLLOWS SIN, EVEN 
THOUGH FORGIVEN. 

Peter had hardly done speaking be- 
fore he began to feel uneasy. His con- 
science troubled him. And there, in 
the open space between the two 
columns in our picture, we see Jesus 
standing with his hands bound in front 
of him. 



We read that " the Lord turned and i Jesus met Peter again, after his resur- 
looked upon Peter." What a look that rection, he was just the same. We do 
must have been ! How much of sor- not read of one cross, unkind, or angry 
row, and pity, and gentle reproof there word that he spoke to him. On the 
must have been in it ! It almost broke contrary, he was gentle, and loving, 
Peter's heart. It made him see and and kind to him. He sent a special 
feel at once what a dreadful sin he had j message to him, by the angel, on the 
been committing. "And when he morning of his resurrection. This 
thought thereon he wept " (Mark xiv. ' angel met the two women who ap- 
72). And just as Jesus looked at him, j peared first at the grave of Jesus, and 
the cock crew the second time. Luke I sent them away with these words: "Go 



120 



THE DENIAL. 



tell his disciples, and Peter" How kind 
and thoughtful this was in Jesus! He 
knew how sorrowful Peter was, and 
he wished to let him know that he was 
ready to forgive and forget all that he 
had done wrong. 

And this was not ail. The apostle 
Paul tells us, that on the morning of 
his resurrection, Jesus gave Peter an 
opportunity of seeing him all by him- 
self, before the other apostles saw him. 
See I Cor. xv. 5. In this way Peter 
had a chance to tell Jesus how sorry 
he was for what he had done, and to 
make it all up with him, before they 
met together with the other disciples. 
How kind this was in Jesus ! We are 
not told what took place at this 
meeting, but we can imagine with what 
deep sorrow and bitter tears Peter 
would confess his sin and ask to be 
forgiven ; and how tenderly Jesus 
would tell him that he forgave him 
and loved him still. And so Peter, 
when he afterwards wrote one of his 
letters to his friends, who were far 
away from home, could say, " Blessed 
be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which, according to his 
abundant.mercy, hath begotten us again 
unto a lively hope by the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ from the dead." 

Let this encourage us when we 



confess our sins to Jesus, and let it 
teach us to treat, in the same kind and 
gentle way, those who offend us. We 
should learn from Jesus how to forgive. 
With all our hearts let us offer the 
prayer : 

" Thy fair example may we trace, 

To teach us what we ought to be ; 
Make us by transforming grace, 

Dear Saviour, daily more like Thee." 



"Return unto Me, and I will return tinto you" 

Weary of wandering from my God, 
And now made willing to return, 

I hear and bow me to the rod ; 

For Thee, not without hope, I mourn; 

I have an Advocate above, 

A Friend before the throne of love. 

O Jesus, full of truth and grace, 
More full of grace than I of sin, 

Yet once again I seek Thy face; 
Open Thine arms and take me in, 

And freely my backslidings heal, 

And love the faithless sinner still. 

Thou knowest the way to bring me back, 

My fallen spirit to restore ; 
Oh ! for Thy truth and mercy's sake 

Forgive, and bid me sin no more; 
The ruins of my soul repair, 
And make my heart a house of prayer.^ 

Oh, give me, Lord, the tender heart, 
That trembles at the approach of sin; 

A godly fear of sin impart, 

Implant and root it deep within, 

That I may dread Thy gracious power, 

And never dare offend Thee more. 



THE KING OF KINGS. 



HERE we have a picture of Jesus 
standing before Pontius Pilate, 
the Roman governor. This took 
place in the palace of the governor in 
Jerusalem. Jesus was taken there by 
his enemies, the Jews, who had seen him 
go into the garden of Gethsemane. 
Judas, who betrayed him, led a band of 
armed men, and there they seized him, 
and led him away to the High Priest. 
He examined him and then sent him to 
Pilate ; this is the view which our 
picture gives. Read John xviii. 33-38. 
When the Jews brought Jesus before 
Pilate, Luke tells us that they accused 
him of claiming to be a king. In 
countries where kings reign, it is con- 
sidered one of the greatest crimes for 
any one other than the regular ruler to 
pretend to be king. He can only 
carry out his claims by upsetting the 
government, and either killing the king 
or driving him out of the country. 
This is called treason against the gov- 
ernment. And a traitor to his king or 
his country is generally put to death, 
as he deserves to be. The Jews made 
this charge against Jesus that Pilate 
might suppose he was trying to over- 
turn the Roman government. If this 
had been the case, it would have been 

the duty of Pilate to have him put to 
(122) 



death. And when they saw that he 
was disposed to let Jesus go, they said 
to him, " If thou let this man go, thou 
art not Caesar's friend : whosoever 
maketh himself a king speaketh against 
Caesar" (John xix. 12). And this was 
the reason why Pilate twice asked 
Jesus if he was a king. We have one 
of these questions in verse 33, and the 
other in verse 37. He wished to find 
out if Jesus was a king; what sort of 
a kingdom he expected to have. 

When Pilate first asked this question, 
Jesus did not answer it. Instead he 
asked him another question in reply. 
We see this in verse 34. In answering 
this question, Pilate told Jesus that it 
was what "his own people " had said 
that had led him to ask this question. 
And then when Pilate repeated the 
question, as we see in verse 37, Jesus 
gave him a plain, positive answer to it. 
"Thou say est that I am a king." 
This was just the same as saying, 
" Yes, I am a king." Here before the 
governor, and all the people who were 
present, Jesus openly claimed to be a 
king, and he had a perfect right to do 
so. This is one of the characters in 
which he is spoken of by the prophets 
in the Old Testament. It is of Jesus 
that God is speaking through David 



THE KING GF KINGS. 



123 



when he says (Ps. ii. 6), " Yet have I 
set my King upon my holy hill of 
Zion." And it is of Jesus and his 
kingdom that the prophet Isaiah is 
speaking (Isa. xxxii. I, 2) when he. 
says, " Behold a King shall reign in 
righteousness, . . . and a man shall be as 
an hiding place from the wind, and a 
covert from the tempest ; as rivers of 
water in a dry place, as the shadow of 
a great rock in a weary land." And 
when the an^el came from heaven to 
Mary, the mother of Jesus, to tell 
about his birth, he spoke of him as a 
great king. He said (Luke i. 32, 33), 
11 He shall be great, and shall be called 
the Son of the Highest: and the Lord 
God shall give unto him the throne of 
his father David: and he shall reign 
over the house of Jacob forever ; 
and of his kingdom there shall be 
no end." And so we see what good 
reason Jesus had to speak of him- 
self as a king, and talk about his 
kingdom. 

What Jesus said about his kingdom 
we find chiefly in v. 36 ; and when 
we read this verse carefully, we see 
that Jesus did not attempt to say 
what his kingdom was, so much as 
what it was not. And the reason why 
he did this was because he knew that 
Pilate was not a religious man, and 
would not have understood him if he 
had gone on to describe his kingdo*n 
more particularly ; and so he satisfied 



himself with stating three things which 
his kingdom was not to be. 

One of these was, " my kingdom is 
not of this world? The meaning of 
this is that it did not begin, and would 
not continue and end, like worldly king- 
doms. It was not for show or parade, 
for trade or commerce, for wealth and 
honor. Its laws and government were 
different from those of this world. 

Another of these things was, "if 
my kingdom were of this world, then 
would my servants fight." Only the 
night before, when Peter drew his 
sword and began to fight for him, he 
made him stop and put up his sword. 

The third thing that he said was, 
" now is my kingdom not from hence." 
Some think this means that Jesus did 
not come to set up his kingdom then, 
but only to prepare the way for it The 
gospel is the " good news of the king- 
dom," and as we pray, "Thy kingdom 
come," we think of a future period 
as the time for the setting up of this 
kingdom. And if this is what he 
meant, then we can see that all he 
said to Pilate was intended to show that 
though Jesus was a king, his kingdom 
would not interfere with the temporal 
power of the Roman government.' 

But let us take Jesus for our king, 
and pray that we may be his loyal and 
loving subjects and servants, and his 
kingdom will be present to us now in 
our hearts and lives. 



JESUS AND MARY. 



AFTER Jesus was taken down from 
the cross, and buried in the new 
tomb that belonged to Joseph 
of Arimathea, he lay there till the 
third day. Then as the early light of 
the first Easter day was dawning he rose 
from the dead. On that morning the 
scene represented in our picture took 
place. 

Mary went early in the morning to 
the grave, and as she stood before it 
she wept. This was the way in which 
she showed her love for Jesus. She 
wept at the cross of Jesus, when she 
saw his wonderful sufferings. That 
was quite natural, for there was reason 
enough for Mary to weep when she 
stood by the cross, and because she 
tenderly loved her Saviour. But she 
was weeping now because she found 
the grave of Jesus empty, and his body 
no longer there. But suppose she had 
found the sealed stone over the mouth 
of the grave, and the dead body 
of Jesus still in it, she would then 
have had much more reason to weep. 
If Mary had only understood better 
what Jesus had said about his resur- 
rection, she would not have wept 
on account of finding the grave of 
Jesus empty. Those tears were not all 
caused by love. Ignorance and un- 



| belief had a good deal to do with 

I them. We often weep on account of 

I things which, if we only understood 

I them better, and had stronger faith in 

God, would make us rejoice rather 

than weep. This was what Mary did. 

She wept. 

But as she looked into the sepulchre, 

"she saw two angels in white. 1 ' One 

of them was seated by the head and 

the other by the feet where the body 

of Jesus had been lying. Only a few 

! minutes before Mary looked into the 

| sepulchre, the apostles Peter and John 

! had been there. They not only looked 

into the sepulchre, but actually went in. 

\ They saw the grave-clothes which 

I Jesus had left behind him, but they did 

; not see the angels. How strange this 

: was ! No doubt the true explanation 

of it is, that the angels have the power 

of making themselves invisible. They 

come and go about us all the time, but 

I they are hidden from our view. We 

do not see them. And then they have 

the power of making themselves seen 

; by men when God wishes them to 

appear. Peter and John were not to 

see the angels. They were there in the 

sepulchre when the apostles went in, 

but they made themselves invisible. 

i The apostles did not see them. But 

(125) 



126 



JESUS AND MARY. 



God wanted to reward Mary for her 
great love and faithfulness to Jesus, 
and so the angels made themselves 
visible to her. When she looked into 
the tomb she saw the angels. 

But Mary saw Jesus too in the 
sepulchre. She did not recognize him 
at first. But when he called her by 
her name she knew his voice. Out of 
all his disciples she was the first who 
saw Jesus after his resurrection. This 
was a privilege granted to her because, 
in her great love, she was one of the 
last to leave his cross, and one of the 
first to be at his tomb. 

But the angels spoke to her. They 
asked her why she wept. They 
wished her to understand that Jesus, 
who had been dead, was alive again, 
and that on this account she ought to 
rejoice rather than weep. While Mary 
was talking with the angels, Jesus 
entered the sepulchre. Her back was 
turned to the door of the sepulchre. 
She did not see him come in. It may 
have been that she heard a footstep, 
or it may have been that the angels 
rose up when Jesus entered, to do 
him honor as their king. Then Mary 
turned and saw him too. But she 
did not know him at first. It may 
have been that her tears blinded her 
eyes, or that she had no expectation 
of seeing Jesus. Jesus asked her the 
same question the angels had asked 
about weeping. She thought he was 
the person who had charge of the 



garden in which the sepulchre was 
situated, and that he had taken the 
body of her Saviour away. She had no 
idea that Jesus had risen from the dead. 
She supposed his lifeless body had 
been carried away somewhere, and she 
asked the supposed gardener what he 
had done with the body (John xx. 1 5). 

Then Jesus simply called her by her 
name — Mary. He spoke this word in 
the same tender, loving way in which 
he had been accustomed to speak it. 
Then in a moment she knew him. 
We can imagine the greatness of 
her joy. But Jesus told her not to 
touch him (v. 17). It is hard to tell 
why he said so. It may have been 
that he saw her excessive joy would 
lead her to do or say something 
that was hardly proper, and he said 
this to calm her mind, and sent her on 
an errand to go and tell his disciples 
about his resurrection and ascension. 

Then " she turned herself, and said 
unto him, Rabboni." This means not 
merely master, but my Lord or my 
master. It was like the confession of 
Thomas, when his unbelief was over- 
come by seeing the marks of the nails 
in the hands of Jesus, and by putting 
his hand into the hole made by the 
spear in his side, he exclaimed — " My 
Lord and my God." Thus Mary wor- 
shipped her risen Saviour, and had 
fulfilled in her experience God's 
promise : " Them that honor me I 
will honor." 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 



HERE we nave a picture of the 
angel sitting by the empty tomb 
of Jesus, speaking to the women 
who came early to the sepulchre. 

If we were building an arch, the 
most important stone we would have 
to put in would be the key-stone. This 
goes into the centre of the arch. It 
completes the arch, and binds all the 
other stones fast together. And if we 
compare the work of our salvation, 
which Jesus did for us, to an arch, then 
we may speak of his resurrection as the 
key-stone in this arch. This was what 
finished the work he did for us, and 
made it complete. In Matt, xxviii. 
8-20, we read of what took place 
" after the resurrection." 

Let us notice 

FIRST, THE PROOF OF CHRIST'S RESURREC- 
TION. 

The friends of Jesus give us part of 
this proof. There are only two meet- 
ings of Jesus and his friends spoken of 
in this part of the Bible, but eight or 
nine other meetings are spoken of in 
other parts of the New Testament. At 
these meetings the disciples not only 
saw but talked with Jesus, they ate 
w 7 ith him, they felt and handled him, 
they saw the marks of the nails, and 
Thomas was asked to put his fingers 
(128) 



into the place through which they had 
been driven. Peter saw him all alone 
by himself. So did Mary. The others 
saw him in company. At one time 
there were two disciples together when 
Jesus showed himself. At another 
time there were seven, and then ten, 
and then eleven, and then above five 
hundred of them at once. There could 
be no mistake here. The proof of 
Christ's resurrection, which we have 
from his friends, is very strong. 

And so is that from his enemies (vs. 
1 1— 1 5). The soldiers saw all that took 
place at the grave of Christ. They 
saw the angels come. They went and 
told these things to the priests. But 
they would not believe that Jesus was 
risen. So they gave them money to 
tell the ridiculous story that the disci- 
ples came and . stole away his body 
while they were asleep. How foolish 
to suppose that men could tell what 
was done while they were asleep ! 
And when we put these things all 
together, we see how strong the proof 
is of the resurrection of Christ ! 

But what was 

THE EFFECT OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION? 

When the angels told the women 
that Jesus was risen, " they departed 
quickly from the supulchre with fear 



AFTER THE RESURRECTION. 



129 



and great joy ; and did run to bring his 
disciples word." And when he ap- 
peared to the disciples on another oc- 
casion, we read : " Then were the dis- 
ciples glad." The effect of Christ's 
resurrection was to cause joy and glad- 
ness to his disciples. 

We cannot wonder at this. It 
showed the truth of all that he had 
taught them before he died. It made 
them sure that their sins were pardoned, 
and that salvation was made certain. 

And then, too, it made them, and 
should make us, sure of onr own resur- 
rection. If Christ had not risen there 
would have been no resurrection for 
any of his people. But now it is just 
as certain that we shall rise as it is that 
Jesus rose. And this is one reason 
why the Sabbath day should be so 
bright and happy. It seems so natural 
then to say : " The Lord is risen. 
Rejoice." 

THE TRUTH TAUGHT AFTER THE RESURREC- 
TION. 

Jesus said : "All power is given unto 
me in heaven and in earth." This was 
most important for the disciples to 
know, for Jesus was soon to leave 
them, and then they would have a great 
work to do. And in trying to do that 
work it would be a great comfort for 
them to know that their Master, though 
not with them any longer in person, 
was yet able to give them all the help 
they would need. What a great com- 
fort this is to ministers, and teachers, 
9 



and parents, and all who are trying to 
work for Jesus ! The angels all stand 
ready to do whatever he wants them to 
do, and " all things serve him." He is 
able and willing to send to you, or to 
me, or to any of his servants whatever 
help we may need. 
And now 

THE COMMAND GIVEN AFTER THE RESUR- 
RECTION. 

" Go ye therefore, and teach all 
nations," etc. This was the last com- 
mand that Jesus gave before leaving 
the world. It was given not to the 
apostles only, but to all his people to 
the end of the world. It makes it the 
duty of all who love Jesus to feel an 
interest in the cause of missions. And 
till the whole world is converted, this 
command of Jesus will be binding on 
all his people. 

When a young clergyman in Eng- 
land once asked the Duke of Welling- 
ton if he thought it was worth while to 
send missionaries to the heathen, the 
answer of that great soldier was : "Sir, 
look to your marching orders." He 
meant by this the great command of 
Christ. This leaves us no choice. If 
we love him we must keep this, his last 
command. Some of us may be called 
to give ourselves to this work by be- 
coming" missionaries. But whether we 
do this or not, by our prayers, by our 
labors, and by our gifts we may all help 
to carry out this great command of our 
risen Saviour. 



ill imi 




A WONDERFUL SERMON. 



THE picture is intended to represent 
the Apostle Peter preaching to 
the Jews in Jerusalem on the 
Day of Pentecost. The word Pente- 
cost means the fiftieth, and it was so 
called because it was the fiftieth day 
after the Jewish Passover. Jesus re- 
mained with his disciples forty days 
after he rose from the dead. Then he 
ascended up into heaven. And it was 
now ten days since that event. During 
those ten days his disciples had been 
waiting and praying. Jesus had told 
them to remain in Jerusalem till they 
should " receive power from on high." 
This meant till the Holy Ghost came. 
He was to give them all the power 
they needed, to enable them to go and 
preach the gospel to all nations. Now 
let us see the way in which the Holy 
Ghost came, and the effect of his com- 
ing. 

THE WAY IN WHICH THE HOLY GHOST CAME. 

On the morning of the Day of Pente- 
cost the disciples met together in one 
place. As they sat there, all at once 
they heard a strange sound, and saw a 
strange sight. We read about this 
strange sight in Acts ii. 2. It was " a 
sound from heaven as of a rushing 
mighty wind." It does not say that 
there really was any wind at all, but it 



was a sound as of a. wind. This means 
a sound like that of wind. And this 
sound it was that filled the house, 
and not the wind. This was the way 
in which the Holy Spirit came. We 
know not why he chose to come this 
way. It may have been because in his 
work this blessed Spirit is often com- 
pared to the wind. You remember 
that our Saviour, in his talk with 
Nicodemus, said, " The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, ... so is every one 
that is born of the Spirit." And if the 
Spirit works in this way, then it was 
right enough that when he came to 
begin his great work in the church, it 
should be with "a sound as of a. rush- 
ing mighty wind." 

This was the strange sound the dis- 
ciples heard. But there was also a 
strange sight that they saw, v. 3. 
" There appeared cloven tongues as of 
fire, and it sat upon each of them." It 
does not say that these tongues were 
fire. It only says they were "as of 
fire." This means that it was some- 
thing in the shape of tongues, and that 
these tongues looked like fire. Fire 
has the power of giving light, and of 
making things pure. And as the Holy 
Ghost comes into our minds or hearts 
to enlighten and purify them, we need 

(130 



132 



A WONDERFUL SERMON. 



not wonder that when he came he was 
compared to fire. And here we see 
the way in which the Holy Ghost 
came. 

THE EFFECT WHICH FOLLOWED THE COMING 
OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

There was an effect produced on the 
disciples themselves, and an effect on the 
people who heard them. In v. 4 we 
are told of the effect produced on the 
disciples. " They were filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with 
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them 
utterance." It is the Holy Ghost who 
gives us all the joy, and peace, and 
comfort that we find when we are 
serving God. How great the happiness 
and joy of the disciples must have 
been when they were filled with the 
Holy Ghost ! 

But something still more wonderful 
than this took place. The Holy Ghost 
gave the apostles the power to speak, 
at once, in different languages, without 
stopping to study those languages. 
When a missionary goes to China, or 
to India, or to any foreign country 
now, it takes him a long time to learn 
the language of that country. If the 
apostles had had to do this, they never 
could have done the work that was 
given them to do. And so God gave 
them the miraculous power of speaking 
in languages they had never learned. 
We cannot tell how this was done. 
We know that no one but God could 
give this power. But we know that the 



Holy Ghost did give this power, and 
therefore we know that the Holy Ghost 
must be God. 

Now let us see what the effect was on 
the people who heard the apostles. We 
read about this in vs. 5 to 1 1. There 
we are told of people from all parts 
of the world. Fourteen or fifteen 
different nations are here spoken of. 
Some were from the east, some from 
the north, some from the west, and 
some from the south. It would be an 
interesting exercise to get a map of 
that part of the world, and find out all 
these different countries on it. There 
is only one effect of this coming of the 
Holy Ghost on these people spoken of 
in our lesson. This was wonder. They 
were confounded (v. 6). They were 
" amazed, and marvelled " (v. 7), and 
nothing could be more natural. Noth- 
ing like this had ever happened since 
the confusion of tongues that took place 
at the tower of Babel, as we read in 
Genesis xi. 5-9. They wondered. 

But a more important and blessed 
effect is spoken of, further on in the 
chapter. Peter preached to the people, 
as our picture represents him as doing, 
and the result of that day's preaching 
was that three thousand souls were 
converted (v. 41). That was a wonder- 
ful and blessed effect of the coming of 
the Holy Ghost. Let us pray that we 
may be filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and then we shall be very happy, and 
very useful. 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 



IT was not very long after Jesus 
ascended to heaven that the Jews 
began to persecute his followers. 
They put the apostles in prison, and 
took them before the Jewish Council, 
where they answered the questions with 
great boldness. Then the Jews forbade 
them to preach any more in the name 
of Jesus, and let them go, but they 
banded themselves in Christian fellow- 
ship or union, and if you will read Acts 
iv. 18-37 you will learn how they were 

UNITED IN THEIR CONDUCT. 

They were united in their teaching and 
in the interest, and earnestness, and power 
with which they preached. And when 
the Jewish rulers put them in prison for 
preaching, and commanded them not to 
preach any more about Jesus, the apos- 
tles were united in opinion about what 
their duty was (vs. 18, 19). Their minds 
were made up on this subject. They 
resolved not to obey the Jewish rulers. 

And here some one may ask the 
question : Well, but does not the Bible 
teach us that we must obey our rulers ? 
Yes. The command is, " Obey them 
that have the rule over you"(Heb. 
xiii. 17). And again, "Put them in 
mind to obey magistrates " (Tit. iii. 1). 
But this only means when rulers com- 
mand us to do what is right. One of 
(i34) 



the plainest commands of the Bible is, 
"Children, obey your parents." But 
even a child is not bound to obey his 
parents if they command him to break 
the Sabbath, or to tell lies, or to steal. 
Then, like the apostles, we must obey 
God. We find further that they were 

UNITED IN THEIR PRAYERS. 

They begin their prayer by speaking 
reverently of God as the great maker 
of all things (v. 24). Then they quote 
the 2d Psalm to show how David had 
foretold, hundreds of years before 
Christ came, how kings and rulers 
v/ould set themselves against him (vs. 
25, 26), and show how the prediction 
of David had been fulfilled in the con- 
duct of Herod, and Pontius Pilate, and 
the Jews (v. 27). And then they all 
unite in the earnest prayer that God 
would look on the threatenings of those 
wicked men, and that he would give 
his servants the help they needed to go 
on preaching the gospel with more 
boldness, and doing still greater signs 
and wonders in the name of Jesus (vs. 
29, 30). And here we have a striking 
illustration of the power of prayer. 
Our Saviour had promised his disciples 
that if two of them should agree 
touching anything they should ask, 
it would be done for them by our 



CHRIS TIA X FE1. L WSIIIP. 



*35 



Father which is in heaven (Matt, xviii. 
19). And in the Old Testament we 
have this sweet promise about prayer : 
"And it shall come to pass, that before 
they call I will answer, and while they 
are yet speaking I will hear" (Isa. lxv. 
24). Both these promises were won- 
derfully fulfilled in this united prayer. 

We read in v. 31 that no sooner was 
prayer offered than the answer came : 
" The place was shaken, and they were 
filled with the Holy Ghost." God an- 
swered their prayer by an earthquake, 
that showed he was present with them, 
but did no harm to any one, and by 
sending them the Holy Ghost. This 
was just what they, wanted, and just 
what they had been praying for. It 
was the Holy Ghost who gave them 
power to preach, and to heal, and to 
work miracles. And when God an- 
swered their prayer in this way, it was 
just as if he had sent an angel down 
to say to them, " Be not afraid of these 
Jews. Never mind their threatenings. 
Go on with your work. I will be with 
you. I will take care of you, and give 
you all the help you need in doing my 
work." And God is the same now 
that he was then. 

And then see how the apostles were 

UNITED IN THEIR PROPERTY. 

They shared with each other what- 
ever they had. Those who owned 
houses and lands sold them, and 
brought the money and laid it before 



the apostles. In the picture we see 
several of the apostles standing. One 
of them has his hands stretched out as 
if in the act of preaching. And the 
people are bringing bags of money, and 
are laying them down at the feet of the 
apostles. 

We are not told that all the members 
of the church did this, but that some 
of them did so. There was no law in 
the early church requiring or com- 
manding the members to do this. It 
was a voluntary thing. Those who did 
did not feel inclined, were not com- 
pelled to do so. 

In the last two verses of the lesson, 
we have an account of a good man 
named Joses, or Joseph, afterwards 
known as Barnabas, who sold his prop- 
erty and gave it up in this way. He 
belonged to the tribe of Levi, and was 
a native of the island of Cyprus, in the 
Mediterranean. He was afterwards a 
popular preacher of the gospel, and for 
a time the travelling companion and 
fellow-laborer of the apostle Paul. 

When we see how close the union 
was between these Christians, we are 
reminded of the words : " Behold, how 
good and pleasant it is for brethren to 
dwell together in unity." Let us pray 
that the time may soon come when all 
Christians shall be one in heart and 
spirit, and let us do all we can to pro- 
mote this sort of unity among "all who 
profess and call themselves Christians." 



THE FEW BEFORE THE MANY. 



THE picture represents the great 
hall in the Temple at Jerusalem, 
and u the apostles before the 
council." This council was called the 
Sanhedrin. It was the highest court 
among the Jews. It was composed of 
seventy, or seventy-one, or seventy-two 
of the men of the highest learning and 
character of the nation. They sat 
around in the form of a half-circle, 
the high priest sitting as the head or 
president of the council, in the middle 
of the circle. You can tell him in our 
picture by the breastplate which he 
wears on his bosom. They generally 
had two scribes attending the meeting 
to take notes of what was done or said. 
We should call them secretaries. One 
of them is sitting with his back towards 
us, in the front of the picture. He has 
a roll of parchment before him, but he 
must have had a hard time to write or 
take notes in that position. The twelve 
apostles are all standing together, to- 
wards the left hand of the picture. 
Here we see Peter, with his hand 
stretched forth, speaking to the council. 
The chief priests had put the apos- 
tles in prison for preaching the gospel 
(Acts v. 1 8). But God sent an angel to 
let them out, and then they went on 
preaching (vs. 19, 20). Then the chief 



priests sent officers to take them, and 
now we find them before the council, 
and if you turn to Acts v. 29-32 you 
will read about Peter s defence and 
Gamaliel 's advice. 

There af*e two things in Peter's de- 
fence to notice : one is, what he said, 
the other, why he said it. Pie boldly 
charged the chief priests with killing 
Jesus. He said they had slain him and 
hung him on a tree, that is, they had 
crucified him ; yet God had raised him 
from the dead. Thus he preached pub- 
licly the resurrection of Jesus (v. 30). 

Then he had something to say about 
the ascension of Jesus. He said Jesus 
was not only raised from the dead, but 
had ascended into heaven. The chief 
priests thought that Jesus was not a fit 
person to live on earth, so they put 
him to death. God raised him from 
the dead, and took him up to heaven. 

And then Peter had something to 
say about the place that Jesus occupies 
in heaven. In v. 31, he says that God 
exalted Jesus " with his right hand." 
This means that God did it with or by 
his own power. In other places of 
Scripture we are told that Jesus is 
seated at the right hand of God (Ps. ex. 
1 ; 1 Peter iii. 22). The seat at the 
right hand is the seat of the greatest 

('37) 



I3» 



THE FEW BEFORE THE MANY. 



honor. And this is why Jesus is said 
to be seated at God's right hand. 

And then Peter had something to 
say about what Jesus is doing there. 
He is there as "a Prince and Saviour, 
to give repentance and forgiveness of 
sins." When Pharaoh made Joseph 
governor of Egypt, he gave to him the 
charge of all the storehouses of Egypt ; 
and in the days of famine, when the 
hungry people came to fhe king for 
bread, "he sent them to Joseph." In 
the same way God has given Jesus 
charge of all the treasures of grace in 
heaven. And when we need pardon, 
or grace, or any blessing for our souls, 
we must go to Jesus for it. 

Now let us see why Peter said tins. 
His reason was, " We ought to obey God 
rather tlian men" and further, " We 
are Ids witnesses!' This means God 
had sent them to say these things. 
The command, "Go ye i?ito all the 
zvorld, and preach the gospel to every 
creature" (Mark xvi. 15), was what they 
had been sent to do, and nothing that 
the chief priests or any other persons 
might say would prevent them from 
doing it. They " must obey God rather 
than men." 

And now we come to the other 
matter — Gamaliel's advice. 

The members of the Jewish council 
were very angry with Peter after he had 
made his defence. They would have 
been ready to send the apostles back to 



prison, or perhaps to put some of them 
to death, if it had not been for the ad- 
vice which Gamaliel, who was a mem- 
ber of the council, gave them. He was 
famous for his learning in all matters 
connected with the law of Moses and 
the religion of the Jews, and was a cel- 
ebrated teacher. The aoostle Paul 
" was brought up at " his feet, and was 
one of his scholars, and had been edu- 
cated by him. What he said we find 
in vs. 35-39. He advised the council 
not to persecute these men, or to try to 
stop them from preaching. And the 
reason he gave for this was, that if this 
story of Jesus was not true, if it was 
something which the disciples had 
gotten up of themselves, it would not 
amount to much, but would soon come 
to an end. And then he illustrated 
this by telling the story of different 
men who had tried to start a new re- 
ligion without any authority from God, 
but who did not succeed. And so he 
said it would be with the apostles if 
God was not with them. But if it did 
turn out that God had sent these men 
to preach the gospel, then, in opposing 
them, they would find that they were 
"fighting against God." This was very 
good advice. 

The chief priests did not follow it 
exactly, for they beat the apostles, and 
forbade them to preach in the name of 
Jesus. But they went on preaching 
the gospel the same as before. 



THE FIRST MARTYR. 



THE word, martyrdom, means the 
death of a martyr, and a martyr 
is one who suffers or dies for the 
sake of the truth he has been teaching, 
and to show how firmly he believes it. 
There have been a great many martyrs 
in the church. A certain man named 
Fox wrote a largj book about them. 
It is called " Fox's Book of Martyrs." 
After Jesus went to heaven, Stephen 
was the first martyr, and we will here 
tell you about his death, and about 
ivhat he said, saiv, and suffered. 

WHAT STEPHEN SAID. 

We read about this in Acts vii. 5 1- 
53. If we look at the first of these 
verses, and then at the one before it, 
we sh^ll' see a great difference between 
them. From the beginning of his 
speech he seemed to be going on very 
quietly until he got to the end of the 
49th verse. Then all at once he breaks 
out into a severe attack upon the Jews. 
It seems as if something must have 
taken place that is not mentioned in the 
lesson. Some people think the Jews 
disliked Stephen's sermon, and began 
to make a noise so as to interrupt him 
and make him stop. They suppose 
that he stopped for a while till the noise 
died away. While waiting for this he 
saw that thev would not let him Cfo on 
(140) 



and say all that he wanted to. And 
so when he began again he changed 
his subject. He gave the wicked Jews 
a severe rebuke for interrupting him. 
He told them they were like their 
fathers, or the Jews who had lived 
before them. He told them they had 
always been proud and disobedient, 
and unwilling to mind what God told 
them (v. 51). And though God had 
come down on Mount Sinai with a 
great company of angels, and had 
given them his law, yet none of them 
had been willing to keep it. 

We might stop here and refer to 
many things mentioned in the Old Tes- 
tament proving the truth of what 
Stephen says. But one will be 
enough. If you turn to Jeremiah 
xxiii. 8, 23, and read those two verses, 
you will see evidence of the truth of 
what Stephen said. But then the Jews 
to whom he spoke were even worse 
than their fathers had been. In old 
times their fathers had only killed 
God's prophets, but they had killed 
God's only begotten Son. This was 
what Stephen scad, and it made the 
Jews very angry. 

WHAT STEPHEN SAW. 

In verse 55 we read he "was full of 
the Holy Ghost." This blessed Spirit 



THE FIRST MARTYR. 



141 



has power to open our eyes so that we 
can see wonderful things. You re- 
member how it was with the prophet 
Elisha and his servant, just turn to 
2 Kings vi. 17, and read about this. It 
was the Spirit of God who opened the 
eyes of the prophet's servant, so that 
he could see the " horses and chariots 
of fire " that were " round about his 
master." And if the Holy Spirit 
should open our eyes, as the eyes of 
the prophet and of Stephen were 
opened, we should see the angels of 
God as they go up and down from 
heaven to earth. The Spirit helped 
Stephen to see heaven open before him. 
What a sight he must have seen ! He 
saw the glorious things there. But the 
most glorious was Jesus, "the Son of 
man, standing at the right hand of 
God." He does not tell us how Jesus 
looked. If you would like to know 
read Matt. xvii. 1-3, or Rev. i. 12-17. 

Jesus is generally represented as 
sitting at the right hand of God, but 
Stephen saw him "standing''' there. 
Why was this ? Suppose a mother is 
sitting reading or sewing. She sees 
her child in danger; in a moment she 
is on her feet, so as to be able to help 
her loved one. So it maybe that he is 
represented as "standing" in order to 
show how ready he is to help his peo- 
ple when they are in trouble. If we 
are loving and serving Jesus, by and 
by we shall see all that Stephen saw in 



this vision, and more, too, and then we 
will know what a glorious thing it is 
to be a Christian ! 

WHAT STEPHEN SUFFERED. 

The crowd was very angry. They 
yelled and cried. They ran up to 
Stephen, seized and dragged him out 
of the city, stripped off their mantles 
or outside garments, laid them down, 
for safe-keeping, at the feet of a young 
man named Saul (afterwards Paul, the 
apostle of the Gentiles), and then they 
threw big stones at Stephen till he was 
killed. But he was not afraid while all 
this was going on. He knelt down 
amidst all the noise and violence, as 
calmly as if he were in his own room, 
and prayed to the Lord Jesus for his 
murderers: "Lord, lay not this sin to 
their charge," and for himself: " Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit." 

If we compare the death of our 
Saviour and of Stephen, we will see 
that they were both alike in three 
things. They both died a painful death. 
One was by crucifixion, and the other 
by stoning. They both died a forgiving 
death. Jesus looked on his murderers 
and said, "Father, forgive them, for 
they know not what they do." Ste- 
phen prayed for his, "Lord, lay not 
this sin to their charge." They both 
died a prayerful death. Jesus died, 
saying, " Father, into thy hands I 
commend my spirit." Stephen, saying, 
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 



DORCAS RESTORED TO LIFE. 



HOW pleasant is the light of the 
morning when night with its 
darkness has gone !. How cheer- 
ing it is to see the bright sun come 
shining out after a storm has passed 
by ! The young Church of Jesus 
Christ had just passed through its 
first night of trial. The first storm of 
persecution it w r as to meet had just 
been beating upon it, when our lesson 
about Dorcas comes in. This storm 
began in the martyrdom of Stephen. 
We are not told exactly how long it 
lasted, but now the storm has passed 
away. The church is at rest. 

In Acts ix. 31 we have the picture of 
a happy, increasing, prosperous church. 
In vs. 32-35 we see Peter making him- 
self useful, by the power which he had 
of working miracles, and it is in connec- 
tion with a wonderful miracle which he 
wrought that we are introduced to 
Dorcas. 

This lady lived in the town of 
Joppa, which is now called Jaffa, and 
is situated on the Mediterranean sea, 
about thirty-six miles from Jerusalem. 
It is here that people generally land 
who are going up to Jerusalem. The 
house in which Dorcas lived is not 
known, but " the house of Simon the 
tanner, which is by the seaside/' where 



Peter stayed, is still shown to travellers. 
I remember going to visit it when at 
Joppa. From the roof of that house 
I could have thrown a stone into the 
sea. 

Dorcas was known in Joppa as a 
very useful christian. She made "coats 
and garments " for the poor, and in this 
way she did a great deal of good. 
And this example of Dorcas teaches us 
two lessons about doing good. It 
shows us, for one thing, how natural it 
is for a christian to do good. We know 
how natural it is for a good tree to 
bring forth fruit. This is what a good 
tree is made for, and we always expect 
to see it bearing fruit in due season. 
And we know how natural it is for a 
fountain to send forth water. The 
fountain is made for this, and we ex- 
pect to find it sending out streams of 
water all the time. And it is just as 
natural for a christian to be useful or 
to be doing good. This is what God 
makes us christians for. If we are 
christians, God expects us to be useful. 
When he compares the Jewish church 
to a vineyard, he says, " He looked that 
it should bring forth grapes " (Isa. v. 2). 
If we are christians, whether old or 
young, rich or poor, God expects us to 
bear fruit. The example of Dorcas 

(H3) 



144 



DORCAS RESTORED TO LIFE. 



shows us how natural it is for christians 
to be useful. 

And then the example of Dorcas 
shows us how profitable the usefulness of 
a christian is. The usefulness of Dorcas 
was profitable to others. The poor 
people who lived in Joppa during her 
life received great benefit from her 
good works. It is said of Job when 
he was alive, that he "caused the widow's 
heart to sing for joy" (J ob xxix. 13). 
Dorcas did the same, and if we are 
useful christians, we shall do so too. 

But then the usefulness of Dorcas 
was profitable to herself, as well as to 
others. It has brought great honor to 
her. Wherever the Bible is read, she 
is known and honored for her useful- 
ness. In all our churches good chris- 
tian women form societies for making 
garments for the poor. These societies 
are called " Dorcas Societies," in honor 
of this good woman. And if we are 
useful christians, and try to do good 
in the world, we shall be honored too. 
God says, "The righteous shall be 
in everlasting remembrance " (Ps. cxii. 
6). " The righteous " here means those 
who love God and try to make them- 
selves useful. They will have "the 
honor that cometh from God," and this 
is better than any honor that men can 
give. And so when we think of Dorcas 
in her usefulness, it shows us how 
natural and how profitable it is for 
christians to be useful. 

We read in the thirty-seventh verse 



that Dorcas " was sick, and died!' She 
was no doubt one of the most useful 
people in Joppa, and yet she died. I 
suppose there were a great many people 
in Joppa who were not useful at all, 
but still they lived. We often see very 
useful people die, while others who 
seem to be of no use live on. We 
cannot explain why this is so, but God 
knows all about it. He always has 
good reasons for what he does, though 
he does not see fit to tell us what 
those reasons are. 

When Lazarus died, Jesus said it was 
"for the glory of God" (John xi. 4), 
and so it was when Dorcas died. We 
can see two ways in which her death 
was for the glory of God. One of 
these was by showing the faith of the 
christians in Joppa. These were the 
friends of Dorcas, who sent to Lydda 
to ask Peter to come to Joppa (v. 38). 
Peter came as soon as he was sent for. 
When he was come, we are not told that 
these friends of Dorcas asked him to 
raise her to life again. But I think 
there is no doubt that they did so. 
And if they did, then it was God who 
put it into their hearts to pray for this, 
and to believe that he would do it. 
The Bible tells us that " faith . . . is the 
gift of God " (Eph. ii. 8). Every good 
thought, or feeling, or desire that we 
have in our hearts, comes from God. 
And if those christian friends of Dorcas 
prayed that she might be raised to life 
again, and sent for Peter to do it, and 



DORCAS RESTORED TO LITE. 



M5 



had faith to believe that God would let 
him do it, then the death of Dorcas 
was for the glory of God by showing 
the faith of the christians in Joppa. 

And then her death was for the glory 
of God, also, by showing his great 
power. To raise a dead person to life 
again is one of the most wonderful of 
all things. It is something which all 
the men in the world and all the angels 
in heaven never could do. When the 
heart stops beating, nothing but th ■ 
mighty power of God can make it 
becrin to beat again. When the blood 
stops flowing through our veins, noth- 
ing but the same mighty power of 
God can set it to flowing again. And 
when Peter kneeled down by the dead, 
cold body of Dorcas (or as he called 
her, Tabitha, which is a name of the 
same meaning in another language , 
and prayed, and said, "Tabitha, arise!" 
he was making use of the power of 
God to raise the dead to life. David 
tells us that " power belohgeth nnto God" 
(Ps. lxii. 11). And this power was seen 
in raising Dorcas to life. Such a God 
is a God whom we may safely trust for 
all that we need. Nothing is too hard 
for him to do. He can always take 

IO 



care of us and help us. And this is a 
good reason for trusting him at all 
times. The prophet Isaiah teaches us 
this lesson when he says, " Israel shall 
be saved in the Lord with an everlast- 
ing salvation : ye shall not be ashamed 
nor confounded world without end" 
(Isa. xlv. 17;; and again, "Trust ye in 
the Lord forever : for in the Lord 
Jehovah is everlasting strength " (Isa. 
xxvi. 4). 



"Blessed are the dead which die in the 1 ord. 

Hark ! a voice! it cries from heaven, 
" Happy in the Lord who die; " 

Happy they to whom 'lis given 
From a worid of grief to fly; 

They indeed are truly blest ; 

From their labors then they rest. 

All their toils and conflicts over, 
Lo ! they dwell with Christ above; 

Oh, what glories they discover 
In the Saviour whom ihey love ! 

Now they see him face to face, 

Him who saved them by his grace. 

'Tis enough, enough for ever; 
'Tis His people's bright reward ; 

They are blest indeed, who never 
Shall be absent from the Lord : 
Oh that we may die like those, 
Who in Jesus then repose! 



THE PRISONER SET FREE. 



IN this picture we have a good illus- 
tration of Peter's release. Great 
success had attended the preaching 
of the gospel, and the young church 
was prosperous, but too much pros- 
perity is not good. Storms are not 
pleasant things to meet, but they clear 
the sky and cool the air, and do good 
in many ways. It is just the same 
with the storms of trial and persecution, 
whether they come on individuals, or 
families, or on churches. 

Read Acts xii. i— 17 and notice 

THE PERSECUTION. 

We read of this in vs. 1 and 2. Here 
we find that the person who now began 
"to vex" the church was " Herod the 
king." There was a large family of the 
Herods. Six or seven of the name are 
mentioned in the New Testament. The 
one here referred to was " Herod 
Agrippa." He was the grandson of 
Herod the Great, to whom the wise 
men from the East came to inquire 
about the birth of Christ, and who put 
to death the children of Bethlehem. 

His motive in getting up this perse- 
cution was chiefly to please the Jews, 
as we see in v. 3. The principal loss 
which the church met was the death 
of James (v. 2), who was one of the 
twelve apostles, and the brother of 



John. He together with his brother 
John and Peter were the favored three 
whom Jesus chose to be with him on 
the Mount of Transfiguration and in 
the garden of Gethsemane, and on other 
important occasions. He was killed 
probably because he was the most 
earnest and zealous of the apostles. 
We are not told whether any others 
were killed at this time, or how long 
the persecution lasted, or whether it 
reached any further than Jerusalem. 

THE PRISON. 

After James had been beheaded, or 
slain with the sword, Herod seized or 
took hold of Peter. He next to James 
was no doubt the most active leader 
among the Christians. Herod put him 
in prison. This was nothing new to 
Peter. Twice before we read of his 
being put in prison (Acts iv. 3 and v. 
18). It was no doubt the same prison 
into which he was put on these dif- 
ferent occasions. Peter must have been 
well acquainted with it by this time. 
But on former occasions he was only 
put in prison for a night ; now he was 
put in for a longer time. Then his 
enemies had no idea of killing . him ; 
now he was to be kept there till he 
should be brought out to be put to 
death. We do not know how long 

(147) 



1 48 



THE PRISONER SET FREE. 



Peter was kept in prison at this time. 
He was put in, we are told, during " the 
days of unleavened bread." In Exodus 
xii. 15, we find that the Jews were 
required to keep " seven days " before 
the Passover, in which they were not 
allowed to eat any bread that had 
leaven in it. At their Passover the 
Jews kept a feast called the paschal 
feast, or the feast belonging to the 
Passover. This is what is meant by the 
word Easter in v. 4. Some time during 
these seven days Peter was put in 
prison. Four quarternions of soldiers 
were appointed to keep him. This 
means four companies with four soldiers 
in each ; this would make sixteen 
soldiers in all. The night with the 
Romans was divided into four parts, 
called watches, and one of these com- 
panies was for each watch. Peter was 
bound by a chain to two of these 
soldiers, and the other two kept guard 
in front of the prison. This was the 
way in which Peter was kept in prison. 
How impossible it seemed for him to 
escape ! 

THE PRAYER. 

• The thought of losing Peter caused 
great distress to all the members of the 
church at Jerusalem. It must have 
seemed to them as if they could not 
get on without him. We are not 
surprised, therefore, to find that a meet- 
ing was called to pray for him. And 
this meeting seems to have been kept 
up all the time he was in prison (v. 5). 



It was held in " the house of Mary, the 
mother of John, whose surname was 
Mark" (v. 12). This was not the 
brother of James mentioned in v. 2. 
It was another disciple of the same 
name. It is supposed that he was con- 
verted by Peter, who calls him his son 
(i Peter v. 13). He was the companion 
of Peter in his travels, and was the 
writer of Mark's Gospel. This is one 
of the earliest prayer-meetings that we 
read of in the New Testament. The 
disciples met to pray for Peter. No 
doubt the chief thing they prayed for 
was that it might please God to release 
Peter. It was that kind of prayer 
which Paul says believers should use. 
" Praying always with all prayer and 
supplication in the spirit, and watching 
thereunto with all perseverance and 
suppliction for all saints," Eph. vi. 18. 
And here we see Jww soon their prayer 
was answered/ While the meeting 
was still going on, Peter was at the 
door of the house knocking to get in. 
In Isa. lxv. 24 God says, "while they 
are yet speaking I zvill hear." This 
promise was strikingly fulfilled in the 
present case. Hozu far those prayers 
readied! All true prayer reaches to 
the throne of God. And we see here 
how mighty prayer is. It brought an 
angel down from heaven ; and notice 
what great things he did. He enters the 
prison. He wakens Peter. Without 
touching the chains on Peter's limbs, 
the angel makes them drop off. He 



THE PRISONER SET TREE. 



149 



leads the way and Peter follows. They 
pass through two wards, or cells, or 
sections of the prison. These no doubt 
had doors to them, bolted and barred. 
Nothing is said about these ; they must 
have opened before the angel. Now 
they come to the outside gate of the 
prison. " The iron gate that leadeth 
unto the city; which opened to them 
of his own accord : and they went out 
and passed on through one street, and 
forthwith the angel departed from 
Peter." It was the angel's power which 
did this. Now Peter is released. He 
is out of the power of his enemies, 
and the angel disappears and leaves 
him. 

How like a dream it seems to Peter! 
As soon as he recovers from his great 
astonishment, he says, " Now I know 
of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his 
angel, and hath delivered me out of the 
hand of Herod, and from all the 
expectation of the people of the Jews." 
He goes directly to the house where 
his friends were met to pray for him, 
which he probably made his home. 
He knocks. Rhoda, a young woman, 
answers. She knows his voice when 
he speaks, and in her gladness, with- 
out opening the door, runs back to 
tell the good news that Peter was 
standing at the door. At first they 
thought she was crazy. " Then said 



they, It is his angel." The Jews 
thought that every one of God's chil- 
dren had a particular guardian angel 
to take care of him. We are not told 
in the Bible that this is really so. But 
it says of the angels "are they not all 
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister 
for them who shall be heirs of salva- 
tion ? " Peter is let in. He tells them 
what the angel had done. And then 
the praj'cr-meet'mg was turned into a 
praise-meeting. Then he sent word 
of his release to the apostles, among 
whom the other James, called " James 
the Less," was probably the head or 
chief at Jerusalem. And then he went 
to some other place, so as to be out 
of the way till the persecution was 
over. 

THOUGHTS SUGGESTED. 

1. How strange it seems that God 
should suffer such good and useful men 
as the apostle James to be killed by 
wicked men. Jesus said to Peter, 
" What I do thou knowest not now ; 
but thou shalt know hereafter " (John 
xiii. 7). 

2. What encouragement we have here 
to call on God in the day of trouble, 
assured that he will hear us ! 

3. How much surprised we should 
often be, as these christians were, if God 
should answer our prayers / 



THE GREAT PREACHER. 



IN making the picture the artist had 
before him the latter part of Acts 
xix. instead of the first part. In the 
latter part we read of a great tumult 
which took place at Ephesus. The 
Bible says, "the whole city " being 
" filled with confusion." Paul was so 
successful in his preaching, and so 
many people were becoming christians 
and giving up the worship of the god- 
dess Diana, that the men who got their 
living by making images of the goddess 
began to be afraid that their trade 
would be ruined. So they gathered a 
crowd of people together, and spent 
two hours in crying out as loud as they 
could, "Great is Diana of the Ephcsians" 
which we see engraved in Greek on the 
beam that runs across the upper part 
of the picture. You see the men, 
greatly excited, stretching out their 
hands and spending their strength in 
uttering this cry. The principal figure 
in the picture being an opposer of 
"Paul at Ephesus." Let us notice three 
things: the place of Paul's visit, the 
incidents of the visit, and the lessons of 
the visit. 

THE PLACE OF PAULS VISIT. 

It was the city of Ephesus. This 
was a celebrated city in Asia Minor, 
situated about forty miles from Smyrna. 



It was a free city under the Romans, 
and being very favorably situated for 
trade and commerce, it became very 
rich. But that for which it was most 
famous was its temple, dedicated to the 
worship of the Greek goddess Artemis, 
or Diana. She was regarded as a 
huntress, and was said to have a silver 
bow. You see several images of her 
in the front o{ the picture. One of 
these gives a back view, with her quiver 
hung over her shoulder. Another 
gives a front view, where she is seen 
holding her bow in her left hand. The 
silver shrines or images which De- 
metrius the silversmith made were 
like these. We see here also a small 
pattern of the temple. This is taken 
from a coin issued during the reisrn of 
Xero. who was emperor of Rome at the 
time the apostle Paul was a prisoner 
there. 

This temple stood at the head of the 

■ harbor, and was four hundred and 
twentv-five feet lonsj, as loner as one of 
our squares in Philadelphia, and two 
hundred and twenty feet wide. The 

' time spent in building it is said to have 
been two hundred and twentv years. 
It was supported by one hundred white 
marble columns, sixty feet high, each 
column being the gift of a king. It 

(i50 ' 



152 



THE GREAT PREACHER. 



was considered one of the seven 
wonders of the world. On the night 
in which Alexander the Great was born 
this temple was burned. It was set on 
fire by a miserable fellow who wanted 
to make himself famous, and could 
think of no other way of doing this. 
There are such men still, who will com- 
mit the greatest sin if thereby they can 
make themselves notorious before the 
public. 

Ephesus was also famous for its 
theatre, which we are told could seat 
fifty thousand people. It had also a 
very large circus or stadium, which was 
used for races and wrestling matches 
and fights with wild beasts. Paul refers 
to this in I Cor. xv. 32. Such was 
the place of Paul's visit. 

THE INCIDENTS OF PAUL'S VISIT. 

There are three of these to notice. 
One was his preaching in private (verses 
1-5). He met some persons who had 
only heard of John's baptism. The 
great Master Jesus, before whom John 
was sent as a forerunner, they had not 
heard about, and did not know any- 
thing about the Holy Ghost or his 
blessed power and influences. Paul 
preached Jesus to them. He told them 
all about his life and death, his resur- 
rection and ascension into heaven, and 
the gift of the Holy Ghost. They 
believed what Paul told them, and so 
soon as they heard of this, they were 
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
and the Holy Ghost came upon them. 



But Paul preached in public as well as 
in private. This was another incident 
of his visit to Ephesus (verses 8-1 1). 
For three months he preached in the 
synagogue. We are not told how large 
the synagogue was or how many people 
it would hold, but he spoke with great 
boldness, " reasoning and persuading as 
to the things concerning the kingdom 
of God " (v. 8. R. V.) And then for 
two years he preached in " the school 
of one Tyrannus." We know not who 
this man was, but he had a school- 
house, and he let Paul have the use of his 
school as a preaching place. W T hether 
Paul hired this school, or whether 
Tyrannus loved the gospel, and gave 
Paul the use of the room freely, because 
he wanted to have others hear it, we 
cannot tell. But the place seems to 
have been a well-known place. 

And then the miracles Paid performed 
here become another incident of his 
visit (verses 1 1, 12). The writer calls 
them special miracles. 

How full of power to do good he 
must have been, when even garments 
of any kind that once touched his body 
could carry healing and blessing to 
those who received them, and even evil 
spirits were subject to him ! But all 
this power came from Jesus. He was 
the fountain ; Paul was one of the 
streams flowing from that fountain. 
If the stream was so full of blessing, 
how wonderfully full the fountain must 
be! 



THE GREAT PREACHER. 



153 



THE LESSONS OF THE VISIT. 

This is the other point about it we 
are to notice : 

{a) The right spirit in which to receive 
the word of God is one lesson we may 
learn (verse 5). As soon as these 
people heard of the fuller gospel that 
Paul preached, they received it at once. 
" Speak, Lord, for thy servants hear," 
was the feeling they had. And this is 
the feeling that we should have. We 
should have a willing spirit, and receive 
the glad tidings of the gospel gladly. 

(b) The difference between tiieir times 
and onrs is another lesson taught by 
this subject. These people were living 
at Ephesus. This was not more than 
about seven hundred miles by sea from 
Jerusalem. It was one of the great 
centres of trade and commerce, of 
intelligence and education in those 
days. The time of Paul's visit to 
Ephesus was from twenty-one to twenty- 
four years after the death of Christ, 
and though the progress of the gospel 
had been very remarkable, and been 
wonderfully attested by many signs and 
wonders, yet these people had been liv- 
ing there all that time and had never 
fully heard of the marvellous things that 
had taken place in connection with the 
life and death of Christ, his burial, his 
resurrection, his ascension into heaven, 
and the descent of the Holy Ghost on 
the day of Pentecost. They had not 
heard of the wonderful words he spake 
— of the teaching which no one ever 



could imitate — of the parables of wis- 
dom which he uttered. They had not 
the Bible. The letter by Paul to the 
Ephesians had not been written. How 
different is it now ! Why, we pick up 
the newspaper in the morning before 
breakfast, and under the head of " Tele- 
graphic News," we know of every- 
thing of the least importance that took 
place yesterday all over the world. 
And we have Bibles and Testaments 
and good books almost countless in 
their number. What a great privilege 
is this, but how great is the responsi- 
bility too ! Are we sensible of this ? 
Are we making all the use we can of 
these privileges, and are we improved 
in our minds am 1 hearts, in our life 
and conduct as we ought to be ? 



" The Lord is my light and my salvation" 

God is my strong salvation ; 

What foe have I to fear ? 
In darkness and temptation, 

My light, my help, is near. 

Though hosts encamp around me, 

Firm to the fight I stand; 
What terror can confound me, 

With God at my right hand ? 

Place on the Lord reliance, 
My soul with courage wait; 

His truth be thine affiance, 
When faint and desolate. 

His might thine heart shall strengthen, 

His love thy joy increase ; 
Mercy thy days shall lengthen; 

The Lord will give thee peace. 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 



PAUL was now (Acts xxi. 27-39) a * ' 
Jerusalem for the fifth time since 
he became a Christian. It was 
the last visit he ever made to that famous 
city. He had come up to bring the 
offerings that had been made by the 
Gentile churches, at his suggestion, for 
the relief of their poor brethren who 
were members of the church at Jeru- 
salem. After his arrival he and his 
companions went into the elders of the 
church, and made a report of the success 
which had attended his preaching 
among the Gentiles. This made them 
all very glad. Then they gave Paul 
some advice about what he had better 
do. They said that a great many of 
the Jews who had become Christians 
thought that it was necessary for them 
still to offer the sacrifices and keep up 
the worship of the Jewish religion. 
They told him that these people were 
offended at him, because they thought 
that he did not observe any longer any 
of the laws of Moses. And in order | 
to show that this was not the case, they 
advised him to make a vow, and then I 
go into the temple and offer the sacri- 
fice which the Jews were accustomed to 
offer under such circumstances. Paul 
did this, and now let us see what was 
the result that followed. 



There are four things to notice. 

Either seven days after he came to 
Jerusalem, or seven days after he had 
made his vow, he went up to the temple 
where were a number of Jews from 
Asia Minor. They were very angry 
with him because -he had become a 
Christian, and taught the Gentiles, they 
said, that they could be saved by faith 
in Jesus, without keeping the ceremonial 
law of Moses. The Jews thought this 
was very wicked. To suppose that there 
could be any change in their religion, 
or that there could be any other way of 
getting to heaven, they looked upon as 
the most dreadful of all things. They 
thought that a man who could teach 
any such doctrines was not fit to live. 
And so when they saw Paul in the 
temple, they " laid hands on him," 
or arrested him. Their object in doing 
this was not to have him tried by law. 
They knew that he had broken no law, 
but the\- had made up their minds to 
have him put to death by violence. 
This was their object in arresting him. 

To carry out their cruel purpose it 
was necessary to excite the people, and 
so they accused Paul of two things 
which they considered great crimes. 
They said that for one thing he taught 
people everywhere against the religion 



i 5 6 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 



and the law of Moses (v. 28). This 
was true in one sense, and not in an- 
other. When Paul was preaching 
about Jesus, he was ,only preaching 
what Moses had said would come, and 
what the religion of Moses was in- 
tended to prepare for, just as babyhood 
prepares for boyhood, and boyhood for 
manhood. 

And then they charged him with pol- 
luting the temple by bringing a Gentile 
into it. They had seen him in the city 
with a member of the christian church, 
who was a Gentile from Ephesus, and 
they supposed that he had taken him 
into the temple. There was one part 
of the temple called " the court of the 
Gentiles," where Gentiles were allowed 
to go. But if they went beyond this the 
penalty was death. There was nothing 
about which the Jews were so jealous 
as this. In this way a mob, who were 
ready for anything (verses 30, 31), 
gathered together and began to beat Paul, 
and would have put him to death if it 
had not been for the Roman soldiers. 

The uproar caused by the mob brought 
out the captain and guard who were in 
the fortress called the " Castle of An- 
tonia," overlooking the temple. They 
hurried down to quell the disturbance. 
They found the mob engaged in beat- 
ing a man, who stopped as soon as they 
saw the soldiers. Then the captain took 
Paul away from the mob and bound him. 
The picture represents Paul as bound 
with his hands behind him. But this 



was not the way in which the Romans 
bound a prisoner. They put him be- 
tween two soldiers, and bound one of 
his hands to the hand of each of the 
soldiers. This is what it means when 
it says that he was " bound with two 
chains." Then the captain tried to find 
out what was the matter, but as he could 
not, he ordered him to be taken to the 
castle. The mob tried to get Paul out of 
the hands of the soldiers. But they did 
not succeed. The soldiers protected 
their prisoner, and at the head of the 
stairs we see the captain pointing them 
into the castle. 

There Paul asked permission to say 
a few words to the captain. He was 
surprised to find that the prisoner could 
speak Greek, which was the language 
of educated people. From the violent 
hatred of the people towards Paul, the 
captain naturally supposed that he must 
have been some wicked murderer. He 
asked if he was an Egyptian who had 
created a great disturbance, and who 
had gathered a great company of people 
on the Mount of Olives, and said that 
the walls of Jerusalem would fall down 
when he told them to do so. But Paul 
told who he was, and asked permission 
to speak to the people. 

" God moves in a mysterious way, 
His wonders to perform." 

Paul had long wanted to go to the city 
of Rome and preach the gospel there. 
And God made use of this mob to have 
him taken there. 



PAUL BEFORE AGRIPPA. 



PAUL was now a prisoner at Caesarea 
(Acts xxvi. 6-20). This was a 
town on the Mediterranean, be- 
tween Joppa and Tyre. It was -built by 
Herod the Great, who named it in 
honor of Augustus Caesar, the Roman 
emperor. It had some splendid build- 
ings, and was the chief residence of the 
Herodian kings and of the Roman 
governors of Syria. It is now in ruins. 
When Lysias, the Roman captain, 
rescued Paul from the hands of the 
Jewish mob, he sent him here from 
Jerusalem, under the charge of a band 
of soldiers, because the Jews desired to 
murder him. We read about this in 
the twenty-third chapter of Acts. Paul 
had been a prisoner here for two years. 
During this time Felix, who had been 
governor, was recalled, and Festus 
appointed in his place. King Agrippa, 
one of the Herods, from Galilee, made 
a visit to Festus, accompanied by his 
sister Bernice, who was a very beautiful 
but a very wicked woman. And in 
honor of this visit, as Agrippa was a 
Jew, Festus brought out Paul, his 
famous prisoner, that Agrippa might 
hear what he had to say. The picture 
gives us an idea of the famous as- 
sembly before which this defence was 
made. The person occupying the 
(158) 



central seat on the background is 
Agrippa. Sitting on his left hand is 
Festus. The female seated at the right 
hand of Agrippa is his sister Bernice. 
In front of them we see Paul, stretching 
out his chained hands as he speaks. 
Let us notice what he says about his 
present views, his former views, his con- 
version, and his commission. 

PAUL'S PRESENT VIEWS. 

By "present views " is meant, of 
course, his views at the time when this 
defence was made. What these were 
he tells us in verses 6-8. The sub- 
stance of all that he preached was 
" Jesus and the resurrection." This is 
what he means by " the promise made 
of God unto our fathers." He believed 
nothing and taught nothing but what 
their own prophets had made known. 

You know what difference there is 
between a grain of wheat before it is 
sown in the ground and after it has 
been sown and has grown up into l( first 
the blade, then the ear, and after that 
the full corn in the ear." The promise 
which God had given their fathers by 
the prophets was like the grain in the 
ear that had not grown. The promise, 
as Paul held it, was like the grain that 
had grown up into the full corn. The 
appearance of the grain is very different 



PAUL BEFCKE AGRIPPA. 



*59 






in these two stages, but still it is the 
same grain after all. Paul meant to 
say that " the present views " he was 
then preaching were not new views, 
but only the very things which all the 
prophets had said should come to pass. 
The promise given by the prophets had 
grown, as the grain grows after it has 
been sown, but it is the same thing 
that it was before it began to grow. 
Paul maintained boldly that " his present 
views" at the time of making his de- 
fence could all be proved by what the 
prophets had said long before. 

And now let us see what is said here 
about 

PAUL'S FORMER VIEWS. 

We read about these in verses 9-1 1. 
Here Paul shows how different his 
views had once been from what they 
were when he made this defence. Then 
he had held the truth or promise of 
God like wheat in the grain, that had 
never grown. He did not know that it 
was to grow. He had no idea what 
shape it would take when it had grown. 
And so when he heard of Jesus of 
Xazareth, he thought he was a deceiver. 
He hated him and hated his people. 
He put them in prison and persecuted 
them, and tried in every way he could 
to stop them from spreading the views 
they held. There was a wonderful 
difference between the present views of 
Paul — those he held when he made 
this defence, and his former views. 
And yet, like the wheat in the grain, 



and the wheat when grown and in the 
ear, they were both in reality the same. 
And now let us see how the change 
in these views was brought about, or 
what we are told here about 

PAUL'S CONVERSION. 

How this was brought about he tells 
us in verses 12-15. We have a full 
history of this great event in Acts ix. 
1— 1 8, and we have another account of 
it given by Paul in Acts xxii. 5-20. 
After the ascension of Christ into 
heaven, this conversion of the persecut- 
ing Saul into the preaching Paul was 
one of the most important events that 
ever took place in the history of the 
Christian church. Paul did more good 
by his preaching and his writings than 
any one who has ever lived since his 
time. This conversion of Paul was 
brought about by two things. These 
were what lie saw and what he heard. 
One thins: that led -to it was what he 
saw. It was "a light from heaven, 
above the brightness of the sun " (verse 
13). This was the light of heaven. It 
was the same that shone around Jesus 
on the Mount of Transfiguration. And 
it was not only this great light that he 
saw. He saw Jesus himself. This is 
proved by Acts ix. 17 and 1 Cor. ix. 1. 
Xo wonder that the light blinded him, 
as we learn from Acts ix. 8, 9. There 
was enough in what he saw to lead to 
his conversion. But then it was what he 
Jiearci as well as what he saw that had 
to do with his conversion. What this 



i6o 



PAUL BEFORE AG RIP PA. 



was we find in verses 15-18. But the 
words which must have had the most 
surprising effect of all upon him were 
these : "/ am Jesus, whom thou perse- 
.cutest!" How startling, how perfectly 
overwhelming, this statement must 
have been to Paul! He had been 
thinking of Jesus as a deceiver, un- 
worthy of trust, and had been persecut- 
ing him in the person of his followers. 
And now he finds that this same Jesus 
is the Messiah of whom the prophets 
had spoken, and he sees him standing 
at the right hand of the throne of God, 
amid its blaze of glory. No wonder 
that Paul's views were changed when 
all this took place. There was enough 
in what he saw and what he heard to 
lead to his conversion. And it did so. 
And now the last thing about this 
defence is what we are told here in 
reference to 

PAUL'S COMMISSION. 

At the same time that he was con- 
verted he was commissioned. He was 
commissioned to be " a minister" (verse 
11). A minister is a servant. This is 
what Jesus tells us that he himself 
came to be (Matt. xx. 28). And Paul 
' loved to speak of himself as " a servant 
of Jesus Christ" (Rom. i. 1). But he 
was to be "a witness" as well as a 
minister (verse 16). He was to tell what 
he had seen and more that he was to 



see (verse 16). He was commissioned 
as a minister "to the Gentiles" and not 
to the Jews (verse 17). He did preach 
also to the Jews, but he was best known 
as " the apostle of the Gentiles " (Rom. 
xi. 13). 

And then he was told what he would 
do in carrying out Ids commission. He 
was " to open their eyes, and turn them 
from darkness to light" (verse 18). 
Here we see three things that sin does 
for men : it blinds their eyes, it leaves 
them in darkness and in the power of 
Satan. And here we see three things 
that the gospel does for men : it opens 
the eyes of the blind, it gives light for 
darkness, and turns them from Satan to 
God. This was what Paul was com- 
missioned to do. And this is what 
every minister of the gospel is sent to 
do. ' 

We see here, too, the blessings to 
follow from the execution of this com- 
mission (verse 18), "Forgiveness of 
sins and inheritance among them that 
are sanctified." To put this in two 
words, pardon and heaven are the bless- 
ings that the gospel brings to us. And 
then see how these blessings are ob- 
tained : " By faith that is in me," says 
Jesus (verse 18, last clause). 

How faithfully Paul carried out this 
commission we see in verse 20. May 
all our readers have grace to serve 
Jesus as faithfully as Paul did ! 




II 



PAUL IN ROME. 



IN his voyage to Rome, Paul had 
been shipwrecked on the Island of 
Melita or Malta (Acts xxviii. 16- 
31). He and his company were detained 
there during the three winter months. 
Then they sailed to Syracuse, in the 
Island of Sicily, passed through the 
Straits of Messina, and landed at a 
place called Puteoli, not far from 
Naples, and about a hundred miles 
from Rome. This part of the journey 
was made on foot, along what is known 
as the famous Appian Way. On arriv- 
ing at Rome, the centurion delivered the 
prisoners, whom he had in charge, to 
the military officer in command there, 
"the captain of the guard." And so 
Paul, the greatest preacher of the 
gospel, was brought to Rome, the 
greatest city in the world. There had 
been a christian church here for some 
time. Paul had written his epistle to 
the Romans about five years before 
this. And so even the christians there, 
who had never seen him, felt well ac- 
quainted with him. They had heard 
of his coming, and some of them went 
out to meet him as far as a place called 
Appii Forum and The Three Taverns. 
One of these places was about fifty 
miles from Rome, and the other about 
forty. And now let us look at this 
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interesting lesson about Paid in Rome 
as the prisoner, the explainer, the ex- 
pouiider, and the exhorter. We will 
begin by looking at him as 

PAUL THE PRISONER. 

What is said about him in this 
character we read in verses 16, 30 and 
31. We find here that though a 
prisoner, Paul was not kept in a dun- 
geon, nor even in a common prison. 
He was allowed to dwell in rooms 
which he had hired for himself in a 
private house ; in verse 30 it says, " in 
his own hired house." It is hardly 
likely that he would be at the expense 
of engaging a whole house. He 
probably had two rooms ; one large 
one in which to receive his friends, and 
a small one in which to eat and sleep. 
Here he " was suffered to dwell by 
himself, with a soldier that kept him," 
to whom he was bound by a chain. It 
was not common to allow prisoners to 
dwell by themselves. In the present 
case it was owing no doubt to the 
favorable report that " Julius the cen- 
turion," who had charge of Paul so 
long, and who had found out what a 
good and holy man he was, had made 
of him to " the captain of the guard." 

In the picture the artist has left out 
the soldier and the chain. Paul is 



PAUL IN ROME. 



163 



represented as engaged in writing, and 
the friend standing by him is perhaps 
44 Luke the beloved physician," who 
was his companion at Rome. He was 
probably not allowed to go out of his 
prison, but he had perfect liberty, 
during the two years of his confine- 
ment here, to receive all who chose to 
come to him and to preach the gospel 
to them. No doubt persons from all 
parts of the world who had heard of 
Paul came to see him and to hear the 
gospel from his lips. And Paul was 
glad enough to be a prisoner and wear 
a chain, if in that way he could 44 preach 
deliverance to the captives " of sin, 
"and open the prison doors to them 
that are bound " by Satan. 

But with his pen, as well as with his 
voice, the apostle made himself useful 
while he was a prisoner in Rome. He 
wrote letters from Rome to the Ephe- 
sians, to Timothy, to the Philippians, 
Colossians, and Philemon. 

We look again at him as 

PAUL THE EXPLAINER. 

As soon as he was settled in Rome, 
Paul called " the chief of the Jews 
together" to make an explanation to 
them (see verses 19, 20). He was 
afraid they might think he had come 
to Rome to make complaints against his 
nation, but he assured them chat this 
was not the case. He had only come 
to defend himself against false charges 
made by his enemies. He wished to 
remove any prejudice against himself 



from the minds of his Jewish brethren. 
He did this not from any selfish regard 
to his own good standing among them, 
but in order that he might be better 
able to do them good by preaching the 
gospel to them. They received his 
explanation kindly, and said they had 
not heard anything to his disadvantage. 
They admitted, indeed, that the religion 
which he professed was very unpopular. 
It was ,4 everywhere spoken against," 
and they would like very much to hear 
what he had to say about it. This was 
just what he desired. So he made 
arrangements to have a large meeting 
of the Jews in his prison room. 
Hence we have 

PAUL THE EXPOUNDER. 

A great company of the Jews came 
together to hear what Paul had to say 
about their Messiah. To them " he 
expounded and testified the kingdom 
of God, persuading them concerning 
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses 
and out of the prophets, from morning 
till evening." This was what Paul 
loved to do above all things. We are 
not to suppose that he was preaching 
all this time. No doubt they had a 
sort of Bible class exercise, in which 
Paul took up one passage after another 
from the Old Testament, and then 
showed how they all pointed to Jesus 
as the Messiah. It would be very in- 
teresting to us if we knew what some 
of these passages were and how Paul 
expounded them. What effect his 



164 



PAUL IN ROME. 



expounding of these passages had upon 
the Jews we see in verse 24 : " Some 
believed the things which were spoken, 
and some believed not." We see the 
same effect now in every congregation 
when the gospel is preached, and in 
every class when the gospel is taught. 
And now let us see 

PAUL THE EXHORTER. 

He turned to the prophecy of Isaiah, 
sixth chapter, eight and ninth verses, 
and quoted the solemn words there 
written. He showed them that God's 
purpose was that the gospel should 
first be preached to the Jews. But 
when they refused to receive it, he 
told his ministers to turn to the Gentiles 
and preach it to them. 

But the apostle's exhortation applies 
to us as well as to the Jews. It 
teaches us this solemn lesson, that if 
we would be christians, and be saved 
and go to heaven, we must believe the 
gospel, and do what it tells us. And 
this is what our Saviour meant when 
he uttered these solemn words : "Take 
heed .... how ye hear" (Luke viii. 18). 
It is a solemn thing to read the Bible. 
It is a solemn thing to hear the truths 
of the Bible preached or taught. Our 
salvation depends on the way in which 
we hear those truths. Before going to 
church, or to Sunday-school, we ought 
always to pray that God would help us 
hear his word in such a way that it 
may do us good and save our souls. 



The words in verse 28 are the last 
words spoken by Paul of which we 
have any knowledge. Some persons 
think that he was released from this 
imprisonment, and preached for two or 
three years longer. Others think that 
this was his last imprisonment, and 
that he suffered martyrdom when these 
two years were ended. Which opinion 
is the true one we cannot tell. Let us 
love and serve Jesus as Paul did, and 
then when we meet him in heaven we 
shall know. 



"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of 
him that bringeth good tidings ! " 

How beauteous are their feet, 

Who stand on Zion's hill, 
Who bring salvation on their tongues, 

And words of peace reveal ! 

How charming is their voice ! 

How sweet the tidings are ! 
Zion, behold thy Saviour King ; 

He reigns and triumphs here. 

How hnppy are our ears, 

That hear this j >yful sound, 
Which kings and prophets waited fur, 

And sought, but never found ! 

How blessed are our eyes, • 

That see this heavenly light ! 
Prophets and kings desired it long, 

But died without the sight. 

The watchmen join their voice, 

And tuneful notes employ ; 
Jerusalem breaks forth in songs, 

And deserts learn the joy. 



THE HAPPY HOME. 



THE picture represents the home of 
a happy family. The mother has 
her knitting basket on her lap, and 
is rocking the baby in the cradle by her 
side. The father is reading the Bible, 
which tells how we may have " Peace 
with God," from Rom. v. i-io, and his 
little girl is standing by his knee, and 
listening to the words he is reading. 
The cat is dozing quietly by the cradle, 
and is sharing the comfort that prevails 
in this peaceful, happy home. 

If we would wish to have a happy 
home, the chief thing is to have God 
for our Father, and when we become 
christians by believing in Jesus, " we 
have peace with God." And when we 
think how great, and wise, and good 
God is, we know that it must be a 
blessed thing to have him for our 
Father and to be at peace with him. 
Who would wish to have God for an 
enemy ? And yet the Bible tells us 
that before we become christians we 
are the " enemies of God" (Col. i. 21). 
How dreadful it is to think of being 
the enemy of God ! 

But Jesus came to change God's 
enemies into his friends. And this is 
the reason why he is called " the Prince 
of Peace " (Isaiah ix. 6). Jesus " made 
peace through the blood of his cross " 
(166) 



(Col. i. 20). The gospel of Jesus is called 
"the gospel of peace" (Eph. vi. 15), 
because it tells us how peace with God 
can be obtained. And ministers and 
teachers who are engaged in explain- 
ing this gospel are said to be 4< preach- 
ing peace by Jesus Christ " (Acts x. 
36), and so making happy homes. 

Now do you wish to know how this 
peace with God may be had, and how 
those who have this peace feel ? 

How may peace with God be had? 
Many lessons may be taught, many 
sermons may be preached, and many 
books may be written about the way ifi 
which this is done ; but the apostle 
answers the question in two little 
words. He says it is "by faith." The 
Bible teaches us that our sins are par- 
doned, our hearts are changed, and our 
souls saved, by faith. And our peace 
with God is made in the same way. It 
is just by taking God at his word, and 
believing what he says, that we are to 
get this great blessing. 

Men make peace among themselves 
in different ways. Sometimes they 
fight for peace, and long and bloody 
wars are waged before they can agree. 
Sometimes they buy peace with money. 
In the late war between France and 
Prussia, the French only got peace 



THE HAPPY HOME. 



167 



after agreeing to pay an immense sum 
of money. But it is not by fighting, 
or working, or paying money that we 
can make peace with God. It is only 
by believing that this can be done. 
When peace between God and man was 
first broken it was in the garden of 
Eden. And it was done by our first 
parents not believing God. And so 
when this peace is to be made up again, 
it is just by beginning to do what they 
failed to do ; it is by believing God. It 
is only "by faith " that we can have 
peace with God. 

HOW THOSE WHO HAVE THIS PEACE FEEL. 

We cannot speak of all that is said 
on this subject. But there are four 
things mentioned about the feelings of 
those who have peace with God. One 
of these is — Love. 

In verse 5th the apostle says, "the 
love of God is shed abroad in their 
hearts!' Why do we love our parents ? 
Because they are so kind to us, and have 
done so much for us. But the dearest, 
and best, and kindest mother never did 
half as much for her children as God 
has done for us in giving us his Son, or 
as Jesus has done for us. Jesus left 
heaven for us. He became a feeble 
infant, and a poor, persecuted man for 
us. He hung on the cross, in dreadful 
agony. He died, and lay in the grave 
for us. And when we understand 
about this, how natural and proper it is 
that we should learn to love him! 
" We love him because he first loved 



us." If we have peace with God, and 
think of the cross of Jesus as that by 
which this peace was made, how can 
we help loving him? 

Another feeling is — Joy. 

The apostle says, verse 2d, that those 
in this state " rejoice!' Peace always 
brings joy. When nations have been 
at war, and the war is over, and peace 
is restored, how happy the people feel ! 
Bells are rung, and cannon are fired, 
and flags are unfurled, and bon-fires 
blaze, and music sounds, and illumi- 
nations are got up, and processions are 
formed : all to express the joy which 
the people feel on account of peace. 
But there never was such cause for joy 
as when peace is made between our 
souls and God. Then God becomes 
our best friend, and promises to make 
all things work together for our good. 

Another feeling is — Hope. 

In verse 2d we are told that they have 
"hope of the glory of God!' and in verse 
5th this "hope maketh not ashamed!' 
Hope is a bright and blessed thing. It 
makes people very happy. Even the 
things that people hope for in this 
world have this effect. But when we 
are at peace with God, the things that 
we hope for are brighter and better by 
far, than anything that this world can 
offer. It is heaven, with all its glory 
and blessedness that christians hope 
for, and this must have a wonderful 
power to make them happy. 

And then another feeling is — Patience. 



168 



THE HAPPY HOME. 



This is the feeling which leads us to 
bear troubles, or trials, or "tribulations" 
as Paul calls them (verse 3), with quiet- 
ness and cheerfulness. And we can 
easily understand how those who are at 
peace with God should have this 
feeling. Suppose that some rich re- 
lation in England had died, and left us 
a large fortune, and we were going 
over in a steamer to get it. When we 
get that fortune we shall be very rich, 
and have plenty of everything that we 
can want. The hope of getting that 
fortune would have a great effect on us 
during our voyage across the ocean. 
If the weather was cold and stormy, 
or if we suffered a good deal from sea- 
sickness, how little we should care for 
these things ! We should say to our- 
selves : " Never mind. The voyage 
will soon be over. Then we shall go 
ashore, and get the fortune that is left 
to us ; and that will soon make us 
forget all about the storms, and the 
cold, and the sickness of the voyage." 
The thought of that fortune would 
make us patient under any trials we 
might meet with. 

And this illustrates our condition if 
we are at peace with God. We are on a 
voyage. Heaven is the port to which 
we are sailing. A glorious fortune is 
awaiting us there. The Bible calls it, 
" an inheritance incorruptible, and unde- 
nted, and that fadeth not away." We 
shall be very rich when we get there. 



And our riches will last forever. No 
one will ever be able to take them away 
from us. And surely the thought of 
this should make us patient under any 
trials that may come upon us now. 
They cannot last very long. The 
apostle says, " They are but for a 
moment." And then will come — hap- 
piness forever. What a blessed thing 
it is to be at peace with God, and to 
have love, and joy, and hope and patience 
in exercise in our hearts ! God grant 
that all my readers may have these 
blessings. 



" The redeemed of the Lord shall return.' 1 '' 

Children of the heavenly King, 
As ye journey sweetly sing; 
Sing your worthy Saviour's praise, 
Glorious in his works and ways. 

We are travelling home to God, 
In the way the fathers trod ; 
They are happy now, and we 
Soon their happiness shall see. 

Shout, ye little flock, and blest ; 
You on Jesus' throne shall rest ; 
There your seat is now prepared, 
There your kingdom and reward. 

Lift your eyes, ye sons of light, 
Zion's city is in sight ; 
There our endless home shall be, 
There our Lord we soon shall see. 

Lord, obediently we go, 
Gladly leaving all below; 
Only Thou our Leader be, 
And we still will follow Thee. 



RIGHT LIVING. 



HERE is a picture which illustrates 
a part of one of the many things 

which christians ought to do. 
We have a list of these things in Rom. 
xii. 9-21. The first of the list is, "Let 
love be without dissimulation," or hypoc- 
risy. And if we only have our hearts 
filled with love, this will lead us to do 
the other things spoken of in the 
chapter. The apostle Paul says, " Love 
is the fulfilling of the law " (Rom. xiii. 
10) ; meaning that love is the feeling 
that will lead us to do all that the law 
commands us to do. 

The picture illustrates the 13th verse, 
which says, "Distributing to the necessity 
of saints : given to hospitality? "Saints " 
here means christians. Their " ne- 
cessity" means the things they have 
need of. "Distributing " means sharing 
with them such things as we have. 
"Hospitality " means kindness shown to 
strangers. And so, we are taught that 
we should be willing to share with 
others such things as we have, when we 
find that they are in need of them, and 
especially that we should be kind to 
strangers. If we are true christians 
then this is the way we will feel, and 
this is the kind of life we Will try to 
live. 

There is a good deal said in the 

(170) 



Bible about "hospitality? or the kind- 
ness we should show to others, whether 
they are friends or strangers. 

In one place we are commanded to 
" use hospitality one to another without 
grudging" (1 Pet. iv. 9). In another 
we are told : " Be not forgetful to enter- 
tain strangers : for thereby some have 
entertained angels unawares " (Heb. 
xiii. 2). This is supposed to refer to 
the patriarch Abraham. In the times 
when the Bible was written the people 
were very hospitable, or kind to stran- 
gers. Abraham was like them in this 
respect. We have a very interesting 
example of this in the 18th chapter of 
Genesis, where we read how Abraham 
when once sitting in the door of his 
tent in the heat of the day, saw three 
men coming towards him. They were 
strangers, and he had no idea who they 
were. But he went out, and invited 
them to come into his tent, and stop 
and rest, and have something to eat. 
Then he had water brought for them to 
wash their feet, which is a very refresh- 
ing thing in that warm country. He 
ordered provisions to be prepared for 
them too. One of these travellers 
turned out to be the Son of God, our 
Saviour, and the others were two 
angels, all in the form of men. They 



RIGHT LIVIXG. 



171 



were on their way to the wicked cities 
of Sodom and Gomorrah, which they 
were going to destroy ; and they had 
stopped there on purpose to tell Abra- 
ham what they were going to do. 
And so here we see how Abraham was 
"not forgetful to entertain strangers:" 
and how in doing this he did indeed 
"entertain angels unawares" 

The people in eastern countries have 
very much the same feeling still. 
They are "given to hospitality!' And 
it is this that our picture represents. 
Here we see an aged man, the head of 
a family, coming to the door of his 
house, to show hospitality by welcom- 
ing a stranger. You see some other 
members of the family standing behind 
the father, while a servant is coming 
forward with a basin of water, and a 
towel, that the stranger may wash his 
feet. This was the custom in those 
countries in the days when the Bible 
was written, and it is the custom there 
still. 

The eastern people think hospitality 
is such a sacred thing that if a man 
invites a person to his house or tent to 
eat bread with him, and then finds out 
that it is his greatest enemy, he would 
not touch him on any account. An 
Arab would think he was committing 
the greatest sin if he should attempt 
to injure a man who had shared his 
hospitality by eating bread, or tasting 
salt with him. There is a story told of 
an Arab who had managed to get into 



the house of a merchant in the city of 
Mecca for the purpose of robbing him. 
He packed up a large bundle of valuable 

: things, which he intended to carry off 

! with him. He was just on the point 
of leaving the house with the bundle, 
when he happened to strike his foot 

; against something hard on the floor. 

: It was so dark that he could not see 
what it was. Thinking it might be 
something valuable, he picked it up, 

I and put it to his tongue. It proved to 
be a lump of salt. To taste a man's 
salt is to share his hospitality. And 
so, although he was a thief, he felt he 
could not injure the man whose hos- 
pitality he had shared. Accordingly 
he went off, and left behind him all the 
things he had intended to steal. 

Charles the Fifth, the great Emperor 
of Germany, had very strong feelings 
in regard to hospitality. On one oc- 
casion we are told that after he had 
been encamped for some time in a 
certain place, it was found that a swal- 
low had built its nest in one of the 

i folds of his tent. This was discovered 
when they were going to take down 

; the tent. The servants of the emperor 
would have destroyed the nest, without 
caring anything about it ; but he 
ordered them to let the tent remain 
there till the eggs were hatched, and 
the young birds able to take care of 
themselves. This was more to the 

j honor of the emperor than many a 

I great battle that he gained. 



172 



RIGHT LI V IXC. 



A poor weaver had a loaf of bread 
given to him one day, in a cjrtain town 
in England, when he was very hungry. 
He afterwards became a very rich man. 
But he never forgot the kindness 
showed to him that day when he was so 
hungry. Bjfore he died he left a sum 
of money, in trust, for the purpose of 
distributing, on the anniversary of that 
day, a half-pjnny loaf to every person 
in the town ; and to every person pass- 
ing through the town a penny loaf. 
And now to this day, out of the money 
thus left, any traveller passing the col- 
lege of St. Cross at Winchester, on 
knocking at the gate, and asking for it, 
lias a pitcher of ale and a small loaf of 
bread brought out for his refreshment. 

When Jesus entered our world he 
met with no hospitality. "He came 
unto his ozvu, and his own received hint 
noty Bethlehem found "no room for 
hi n in the in/?." And yet it is his re- 
ligion which teaches us to be "given to 
hospitality." Let us learn to be hos- 
pitable to Jesus, by finding room for 
him in our homes, and in our hearts. 
This is the best form in which we can 
practise hospitality, for Jesus always 
brings a blessing with him wherever he 
comes. 



We read in Luke xxiv. 13-31, about 
two of the disciples who were hos- 
pitable to Jesus. They begged him to 
stay and cat with them after their walk 
to Emmaus, and " he made himself 
known to them in the breaking of 
bread." Zaccheus was hospitable to 
Jesus, and took him home to his house, 
and Jesus brought salvation to him 
that same day. 

Let us then be hospitable to strangers, 
and kind to all. 



" A nctv commandment I give unto you, that ye 
love one another.' 1 '' 

With love the Saviour's heart o'erflowed, 

Love spake in every breath ; 
Supreme it reigned throughout His life, 

And triumphed in His death. 

Behold ! this new command He gives 

To those who bear His name, 
That they shall one another love, 

As He hath loved them. 

In every notion, every thought, 

Be this great law fulfilled ; 
Forgotten be each selfish aim, 

Each angry passion stilled. 

Let all who bear the name of Christ, 
While they His sufferings view, 

Think of His words, "Each other iove, 
As I have loved you." 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 



THIS picture is intended to illustrate 
the parable of the good Samaritan, 
of which we read in Luke x. 30- 
37. It gives us the idea which the 
artist had who drew the picture, of the 
inn to which the good Samaritan car- 
ried the poor wounded man, to whom 
he so kindly acted as a neighbor. He 
has probably made the inn look larger, 
and more splendid, than any to be 
found on the road from Jerusalem to 
Jericho. On the left of the picture we 
see the Samaritan's beast, and one of 
the servants helping the wounded man 
to get down from off its back. 

This is a very interesting parable. 
When our Saviour used a parable, 
he generally had some one important 
lesson in his mind which, he wished to 
teach by it. And if we want to under- 
stand a parable, we must try and find 
out the particular lesson it was intended 
to teach. Jesus spoke this parable to 
a young man who wanted to know who 
was his neighbor, and this is the great 
lesson that it teaches ; or, to express it 
in a different way, we may say that it 
teaches us the law of kindness. 

THE NEED OF THIS LAW. 

In verse 30, we read about a man 
going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
who fjll among thieves, and was robbed, 

(i74) 



wounded, and left half dead. The same 
thing often happens on that road now. 
Certainly this poor man was in great 
need of kindness. He was not able to 
help himself; and unless some one 
should care for him, he would be 
likely to die. And Jesus intended this 
poor man's case to be an illustration of 
those we may find about us all the 
time, who are in need of kindness. 
There are poor, sick, suffering, and sor- 
rowful people everywhere, who are in 
need of kindness. We may each say, 
in the language of the hymn : 

" Whene'er I take my walks abroad, 
How many poor I see." 

There is sorrow everywhere, and 
suffering everywhere; and so there is 
everywhere need for the law of kindness. 

THE FAILURE OF THIS LAW. 

In verses 31 and 32, we read about a 
priest and a Levite, who came and 
looked on the poor wounded man, but 
did nothing for him. They " passed by 
on the other side." They failed to 
practise the law of kindness. And 
they were specially bound to keep that 
law, for they were not only professors 
of religion, but also ministers of God. 
Many of the pffests and Levites of 
that day lived in Jericho ; and they 
would often be going up to Jerusalem, 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 



»75 



and back again, in attending the 
services of the temple. They ought to 
have been the first to show kindness to 
the sick and suffering, because it was 
j ust what their religion required of 
them. The God whom they professed 
to serve was a God of kindness and 
love. He loves to show kindness him- 
self, and he loves to have his people do 
so too. But, in these two men who 
were ministers of God, we see the 
failure of the law of kindness. 

And this failure was not confined to 
that country, and to those days. We 
see the same failure in our country, 
and in our days. Whenever we see 
people who are unwilling to help the 
poor, the sick, and the sorrowful by 
their money, or by speaking kind words 
and showing kind actions towards 
them, then we see persons in whom 
there is a failure of the law of kiitdness. 

THE OBJECTS OF THIS LAW OF KINDNESS. 

In verse 33, we read that it was a 
Samaritan who showed kindness to a 
Jew. This was very different from a 
man showing kindness to one who was 
his brother, his relative, or his friend. 
The Jews and the Samaritans " had no 
dealings with each other." In general, 
if a Jew saw a Samaritan coming along 
the same road, he would cross over to 
the other side, so as to keep as far 
away as possible. The Jew looked 



on him as his enemy. And the Sa- 
maritans had the same feelings toward 
the Jews. They hated each other. 
And yet this Samaritan, when he came 
to the poor man, although he saw that 
he was a Jew, he did not hesitate to 
show kindness to him. This was a 
beautiful illustration of what Jesus 
taught : " Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them that 
despitefully use you, and persecute 
you" (Matt. v. 44) 
Nov/ let us see 

THE EXTENT OF THIS LAW. 

This means how far we must go in 
showing kindness. Suppose this Sa- 
maritan had only gone up to the wound- 
ed man, had looked on him in pity, 
and had said, " I am very sorry to see 
how badly you have been wounded, 
and how much you are suffering. I 
hope you will soon be better. Good- 
bye." That would not have done any 
good. But "he bound up his wounds, 
pouring in oil and wine, and set him 
on his own beast, and brought him to 
an inn, and took care of him." He 
promised, too, to pay the expense that 
it would cost to keep him there till he 
got well. So we ought to provide for 
those in trouble, and in all things do to 
others as we would have them do to 
us, and so follow Jesus. 



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